Warhammer 40K: Grey Knight Special Characters Need Some Pizazz

Let’s take a look at the updated Grey Knight special characters. They should have been updated way more.

The Knights of Titan have a new book out. It’s a major 9th Edition update for the faction, which, let’s be honest – needed it. From a nearly unplayable 8th Edition book they’ve gotten a big upgrade. One thing of course we were pretty excited to check out in the new book was the named characters. Named characters have been getting a lot of love in 9th with some major glow ups and many have turned into real power houses. That brings us to the Grey Knight characters and honestly… I’m nonplussed. Let’s take a look.

Kaldor Draigo

Kaldor Draigo is the Supreme Grandmaster of the Grey Knights, as such he must have some pretty cool rules right? Well… nope! Take a look at this sheet and you’ll see the Draigo has effectively no unique special rules. He does have the Supreme Grand Master rule, which is unique in this book, which is simply a copy of the Chapter Master rules all Marines have access to. And look, I’m not saying Draigo is bad (in fact I think he’s pretty good). He rocks a solid stat-line, has good weapons and is a powerful pysker. He’s also one of the few remaining models in the game to have a 3++ save, so maybe that’s what makes him special. What I am saying is that he feels pretty boring.

This is after all a guy who beat Mortarion and carved his named into the Primarch’s heart, and now lives trapped within the warp able to break free only at special times. He should be ripe for cool rules. When you compare him to other big characters in recent books, Magnus, Gaz, or even other Chapter Masters, he just seems a bit flat and boring.

 Grand Master Voldus

Next up we have Grand Master Voldus, another named character. For special rules he has… wait what? He has… none. He gets the same rules as all other Grand Master. Sure he’s got a decent weapon and yeah he gets to use an extra psychic power. He’s not bad, but again he’s kind or boring.  Honestly with all the upgrade options you can make a much more interesting Grand Master in this book using the generic one. But his mini sure is nice.

Castellan Crowe

Ok, at least we come to a character with some  actual rules. Sure its not a lot of things we haven’t seen before, he can fight when he’s killed, he can fight first, and he gets extra long heroic interventions. He also gets bonuses to casting a certain power. This is actually kind of interesting. It’s nothing super new, or even super good, but it does position him as a character that wants to get into combat and can do some stuff there. I mean, this is kind of the most boring way to do it, since he was already a combat character, but sure, it’s something. For a guy that just got a huge glow up  and is the sole new mini in the release – I think he could have been more inspiring.

I do have one major issue with Crowe however. They’ve gone and upped the power of the Black Blade of Antwry to effectively a master-crafted power sword that does mortal wounds. This is kind of an issue becasue the whole point of Crowe is that he never uses the sword’s power. In past editions the sword was just a S4 AP- D1 attack, as while he contains it, it acts as just a normal non-special sword. Yes, he needed to do more damage, but I wish they could have thought of a fun way to up his power, while keeping the sword at a fluffy basic weapon.

Brother-Captain Stern

Lastly, we come to Brother-Captain Stern. This is the only character I’d really say that has interesting, though not really great, rules. Stern is pretty much a stock brother-captain with the exception of two rules. The first “The Strands of Fate”. In each of his turns he can re-roll 1 hit, wound or saving throw. However, if he does this, then on the other players turn they can re-roll one hit, wound or save.

This is, honestly, a somewhat interesting rule as it requires you to actually think. I’m not sure how super powerful it is, but it is cool. Yes, you get a re-roll, but by doing it you are giving the other player a re-roll, and one they can use on a much wider array of things. You might re-rill a wound on his D2 sword, and let the enemy re-roll a hit on a D6 weapon. The armor save re-roll seems like it’s the most useful, as it can keep him from dying, but it has to be used during your turn, and you are much more likely to need it during the other player’s turn. This is a rule you don’t want to use willy-nilly every turn. It is one you really need to pick and chose and its pretty interesting as a result.

Sterns’ other rule, “Zone of Banishment” does mortal wounds to daemons when he casts powers. Its a power that is far too limited, as it affects only one army, in limited circumstances to be any good. It is at least a unique power, but it honestly feels like something that all the GK characters should have. This feels like it should be a generic power, but isn’t. Even I’d say Stern is the most interesting of a group of named characters I find kind of dull.

Let us know what you think about these dudes, down in the comments! 

Author: Abe Apfel

Abe is that rare thing, an Austin local born and raised here. Though he keeps on moving around, DC, Japan, ETC., he always seems to find his way back eventually. Abe has decades of experience with a wide range of tabletop and RPG games, from historicals, to Star Wars to D&D and 40K. He has been contributing to BOLS since almost the start, back when he worked at and then owned a local gaming store. He used to be big into the competitive Warhammer tournament scene but age has mellowed him and he now appreciates a good casual match. He currently covers 40K tactics and lore, as well as all things Star Wars, with occasional dabbling in other topics. Abe remains in mourning over the loss of WFB to this day.