Goatboy’s Warhammer 40K: Codex Grey Knights Biggest Changes
Goatboy here again with another quick review of the upcoming Grey Knight book.
Having both of the Psychic duelist books come out at once was a great idea from GW as it allows them to make a pretty good “starter” set with the Hexfire book. I think Grey Knights get the better end of this stick even though they have a special Character versus an always usable model for their army. In fact – what you get in there is what got a serious upgrade in the book and will most likely be the backbone of the army in the coming months as more events get rolling. With that – let’s jump into the biggest Codex Grey Knight changes in no particular order.
Welcome Back Strike Squads
GW fixed Strike Squads and has made them a must-take for the army. In fact – the army will be a ton of Strike Squads, a unit of Inceptors, a few characters, and then the other most improved unit the DreadKnight. Is this one of the best troop choices in the game right now? Probably in pure damage output in all phases of the game. They are cheap, have good options, powerful abilities, and are fairly easy to get a hold of and to get working. Pull in a few Rhinos to keep them protected and you have a great start of an army and one of the things I am sure most Grey Knight players have a ton of.
Uber Dreadknight
I spoke a bit about the Dreadknight but this model got a huge upgrade. Now you are limited to one Grand Master per Detachment but the 3 Heavy ones you can take are pretty awesome as well. I think will see 4 of these in a lot of lists as they do almost everything in the army. You need a bad ass assault unit – grab a sword and get to swinging. Do you want something that takes a lot of enemy firepower to get rid of? You get that too. Oh do you want some movement tricks as well – got that too with some stratagems and other options. These baby carriers of doom are here to stay and thankfully a nice little starter box gives you one. I am hoping their combat patrol looks this good as well – but we’ll see.
Honoured Knights
Purifiers and Paladins get a new rule called Honoured Knight which allows them to show up in any Grey Knight army but they don’t get a Brotherhood bonus. The Brotherhoods are like little sects of Grey Knights with extra rules, relics and psychic powers. It is just like the Thousand Sons cults and while they are all interesting – there are a few that stand out and work the best. But – Purifiers and Paladins do not get them but they get some neat stratagems – like Transhuman and other fun things. I think we could see a squad of 10 Purifiers as another central unit that can pour out the mortal wounds at a tiny bit more expensive then a Strike Squad but with some better weapon options.
Nemesis Weapons
The damage profile for Nemesis weapons got better due to their consistent set up. D3 wounds is always frustrating and moving things to flat 2 damage just makes life easier – and faster as you move thru the game. The big thing I see in 9th edition is moving things into the realm of less variation on Damage output. This is great and I hope we see more of this – as much as I hate taking 3-6 damage from Lascannon like firepower.
Purifying Secondaries
They also got a pretty powerful secondary Objective in the Warpcraft options. They purify objectives with a Psychic Action and depending on how many objectives they can do it on will determine how many points they get for that action. The maximum points earned per turn is 6 and there is no current rule on it saying you have to control it to purify it. This could be very powerful as you have some neat movement tricks to get your army around the table, purifying objectives, and gaining points. This is another one that seems to gain power as you push the 9th edition game play of moving and covering the board.
Draigo-tastic!
Oh – and Draigo looks like a monster once again. He can show up in any list, is a supreme commander, and is a bad ass on the battle field. Will he show up in a lot of lists? Most likely as he does a ton of powerful things. Heck – I think the list really looks like Draigo, a lot of Strikes and Dreadknights. I am sure I will go over some more combo stuff as I get more time with the book or jump into a quick video or two. It is a good day in 40k when we get two new distinct different books with new play styles that add to them game instead of kicking it in the teeth a bit too much. That is always my hope with any new codex as having it be too good just means it will get fixed at some point and your time spent rushing to get the newest thing will die on the vine of the meta.
Codex Verdict
Overall the book doesn’t feel as neat as the Thousand Sons – but it is in no way bad. I know a ton of players that will do wonders with this book and while it isn’t an “evil” army I do have one in foam that might see the light of day. I really like the Dreadknight changes as while it is a goofy model it is a model I like. The idea of playing another form of Hero Hammer is always one of the tell-tale signs of an army I can be good with.
Until next time – let’s see if we get some kind of weird Psychic Campaign book called the book of Mind Bullets or the book of the Maelstrom. Will we get a lost Brotherhood of the warp that like a coin flip with one good side and one bad side. Or you know – just give me a danged Chaos Space Marine book.
For the Emperor!
