40K Editorial: Grey Knights vs. the World
My first army in Warhammer 40K was Grey Knights. I spent the better part of 4th Ed. 40K footslogging my pure GK army into Nidzilla, Tau Suit spam and Dual Lash. Sure, things could of been better if I ran 2-3 Land Raiders, but I didn’t see a point in bringing expensive transports in an army that’s already so expensive. Now that the Grey Knight codex is right around the corner, I have to admit that I’m pretty excited. What am I excited about? I’m excited about ice-cold revenge. Let’s take a look at how this newest flavor of Space Marines should fare against everyone else.
Vs. Marines
I think this is going to be a even fight for all Marine players. I’m talking about Blood Angels, Space Marines and Space Wolves. All Grey Knights are rumored to be armed with Force Weapons, so assaults have to be picked carefully. BA’s FNP will negate a lot of Storm Bolter shooting and FC will strike before most Grey Knights who aren’t armed with Halberds. I think Plasma Guns and Plasma Cannons will be finding their place into many army lists because combating even the most basic squad of Grey Knights in CC will be risky business. No Marine wants to fight a S4+ force weapons and I think for that reason, the metagame will look towards plasma weaponry for their answers.
BA can focus on their mobility and FC to pick out favorable combats, SW can reconfigure their Long Fangs for Sunwolf warfare (Plasma Cannons) and vanilla marines can utilize all kinds of flexible builds. I think in terms of MEQ, the smaller the army, the higher the liability. If the GK player builds his army to be small and elite, I think they’ll suffer vs. a balanced marine list simply because of numerical supremacy. Another thing to note here is that all Space Marine armies have solid psychic defense. The hood really keeps the overwhelming number of psychic abilities at bay and a few lucky rolls from the Rune Priest and the entire GK army can get shut down.
Vs. Chaos Daemons
Oh man, I don’t know about this. Gee, let me think: Preferred Enemy over Daemons across the entire army, a 12″ field of automatic deep strike mishaps and psychically-inlaid weaponry that ignores invulnerable saves. Things are not looking so good for our cuddly daemon friends.
Vs. Chaos Space Marines
I think this matchup will be dead even. Dual Lash lists will still be really powerful as it always had and Obliterators are going to cause all kinds of issues for Grey Knights. Twin-linked plasma shots, Plasma Cannons and a ton of long-range Lascannons are going to be a pain for Grey Knights to deal with. S7 Psycannons are out of ID kill-range on Oblits so Grey Knights have to rely on assault and overwhelming weight of fire. Khorne Berserkers will put out a good amount of CC damage on anything they touch and Power Weapons over Fists to combat the number of Force Weapons. One thing’s for damn sure: Obliterators are definitely needed to bring things in balance for CSM vs. GK (like it is with everything else).
Vs. Dark Eldar
Dark Eldar will have the advantage in this scenario. Wyches are faster than most Grey Knights and their dodge save doesn’t care about Force Weapons. All DE HQ choices are faster than Grey Knights (even with +1I Halberds) and Dark Lances will cause serious problems for any footsloggers. Disintegrators will do a lot of damage to MEQ and poison weapons care not for T7 Dreadknights or power-armored units. Even the rumored almighty Paladins have to worry about an army that can move faster, outmaneuver and pour out ridiculous damage at range and still have enough to deal out the CC.
Vs. Eldar
I think Eldar over Grey Knights. The entire Grey Knight army is based off of psychic powers and most of their units compensate their weaknesses with psychic powers. The Eldar’s board-wide Runes of Warding will cause serious problems for any Grey Knight unit that has a squad leader. The average die cast for a psychic ability causes a failure and a perils spells great doom for any unit attempting to cast psychic abilities. I think footslogging Wraithguard lists will see a lot of play because their guns care not for powerful terminators. Fire Dragons smile at Paladins and Harlequins can put the hurt on any Grey Knight unit. Eldar are also exceptionally fast and can determine which battles to win and which ones to run away from.
Vs. Imperial Guard
IG & GK, no problem. Mech Guard has always had the advantage over non-RB spamming MEQ and I don’t think much will change. Battle Cannons will take a backseat for Demolishers and Executioners and Veteran squads with Demo packs will have their way with scary Paladins. Grey Knight units are basically the same as every marine army except they’re specialized at killing daemons and their army is very elite because of that. Small marine army size and overwhelming amounts of Chimeras, Plasma and Demo Packs do not mix well.
Vs. Necrons
Grey Knights. Sorry Necrons, but you guys really need an update. Force Weapons all over the place, striking before you and enough shooting to match you at max range. The new Grey Knight Terminators will cause issues for your army and Paladins will just be ridiculous because of the lack of S8 AP2. What is there to do besides boring Monolith spam? Nothing.. until the Dreadknights start punching them to liquid-ribbons in CC.
Vs. Orks
I’m going to say Grey Knights. Cleansing Flame, overwhelming amounts of Storm Bolter shots, in combination with a lot of Terminator armor kill Orks dead. Killa Kan walls meet Might of Titan and charging Orks have to go through psychic buff on top of psychic buff. Nob Bikers meet reduced Toughness (to 3(4)) vs. S6 Force Weapons will result in Orky death everywhere. Sure, Grey Knights vs. Ork Hordes is going to hysterically fun, but I don’t think more min-maxed lists will fare too good for the boys in green.
Vs. Tau
I think Tau, personally so hear me out. GK suffers from a small elite army model count and thus will suffer dearly for every long-ranged loss. Sure, Tau fall over dead once things get in combat with them, but they are already so horrid that the GK’s elite force weapons vs. Tau is pretty meaningless. The lack of long-range S8 will be quickly felt because Psycannons at S7 is just not enough to reliably mow through enough suits. Hammerheads will also see play and most GK vehicles will be dead from S10 AP1 Railguns before they can utilize Fortitude. Sadly, I see a battle of attrition here that’ll be hard-pressed for GK lists to survive.
Vs. Tyranids
I would say this can go either way but I think Grey Knights will have a slight advantage. Purifiers will do wonders vs. Horde-style Tyranids and small elite Tyranids will suffer greatly in the hands of powerful Grey Knights. Force Weapons on everything will cause problems for all Tyranid MCs and even a humble Justicar can detonate a Trygon. The only thing GK should be wary about is Bonesword/Lashwhip units because no matter how fast you are, you’re going to get cut to ribbons. Once again, no S8 weapons will bring out a lot more Warriors of Tyranids because more Shadow in the Warp is always good. Genestealers can handle anything that’s non-Purifiers and even so, things are going to hurt if enough Stealers survive. I hope Venomthropes see more play, they’re seriously one of the most underused units in the Tyranid arsenal. Don’t worry guys, I don’t blame you. I blame that over-ambitious elite slot.
Vs. Witch Hunters
Pretty even here, but this might be in favor of the Sisters. Witch Hunters are a very competitive army still by my standards. They have all the right tools for the job when fighting on balanced terms. Sure, getting shot dead by Razorback spam and other lamer lists, but so does everyone else. Thank the Emperor that Grey Knights can’t RB spam as well as BA and SW. Divine Guidance does wonders vs. MEQ and Grey Knights are no different. In fact, my 2K sisters list runs almost 2x the bodies as my Grey Knights. With enough Faith Points and plenty of Bolters, most Grey Knights won’t make it into combat with your sisters to be a problem. Once they do, however, there’s no arguing who’s going to come up on top.
Closing Thoughts
Well, that’s all I got for now. I’m really excited about the upcoming months for a couple of reasons. One, I’ll be able to field my Grey Knights again on the battlefield and two, the metagame will change once again. We will see a definite sway into plasma weaponry because coming into melta-range of Grey Knights’ Force Weapons is always a bad idea. Plasma Cannons will be exceptional vs. such an elite army (brings back horrible memories for me). I’m excited to see Wraithguard on the table again and Tyranid Warriors are definitely going to see play. Tau will do well against them and the Eldar will have no need to worry. Overall, I see Grey Knights changing the game for the better, and I’m happy about that.
For more Grey Knight related stuff, check out my gaming blog here. I got a bunch of rumors compiled together and I’ll be following this release very personally.
