# Grey Knights (5th ed) review and tactica.



## bob_the_grea (Jul 27, 2009)

Hi guys long time no chat, i've been away from heresy for a long time. busy with uni, work and gaming. (including tournaments). I've done a few reviews and tactica's here before and they have been well received, so i thought it was time for another one. Namely Grey Knights.

This is going to be done from a competitive point of view. cutting all the fat. so before we look at certain units lets look at the special rules:

*Brother Hood of Psykers.* 

Each Grey Knight unit each get there own psychic power, (mostly hammer hand) this is a nice little boost, in times of need you can boost your strength by one. which can swing the balance of a fight.

A couple of notes here, justicars are ld9 and although this is fairly good in the grand scheme of things, it will still fail from time to time, so don't rely on this ability because it may just fail you at you most desperate time of need.

Next thing to remember is any perils of the warp is resolved against the justicar, so don't try to make this guy to expensive, remember grey knights are expensive as it is.


*psychic pilot*

So with an army of Psykers, it would only be fair if all the trusty rhino, razorbacks and dread pilots be psykers as well. most of the come with the same power, but its a gem. also unlike your strike squad justicars, you count as ld 10. This makes it a very reliable way to cast you powers and keep your army moving and shooting.

The down side however is if you suffer perils of the warp you take an automatic glancing hit, the worse case scenario is you immobilize yourself, that's unfortunately the risk of dabbling with of the warp. 


*Preferred Enemy ( Daemons )*

So its free and will rarely come to play, but when it does you will be walking those daemons back to the warp. good for them.


*And They Shall Know No Fear*

This is a big change, losing fearless for ATSKNF. and personally i like it. always being able to automatically regroup, never count as moving when you do. yes the downside is you do have to take ld9 test's for 25% casualties, but one small note, if a unit is a mixture of Henchmen, and a Grey Knight character joins them, the whole unit gains ATSKNF. bargain.


*Combat Squads*

Same as the Codex Marines, you can double up your scoring units, leaving 2 psycannons in one 5 man unit, and then a more combat 5 man unit in their transport. combat squad has its place, but personally in not a fan of it in Grey Knights, its to easy to reduce the effectiveness of 5 marines, especially when they are over 20 pts per model. either buy 5 plus transport, or buy the 10 and keep them together in there transport.

*The Aegis*

Any Enemy psyker attempting to cast on a unit with The Aegis, suffers -1ld to the test. another nice little bonus, reducing harmful psychic powers during the game.





i would like to say at this point Grey Knights did loose shrouding as standard. This in my opinion is not even a factor, see 5th ed is dominated by units that can move quickly and hurt at short range, melta weapons etc, And shrouding didn't stop those before, and don't anymore. so no loss.


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## callred (Jun 24, 2008)

so far found that the Aegis just isn't worth it - not many rune priests fail their Ld tests on Ld 9 it would appear


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## bob_the_grea (Jul 27, 2009)

I think you need to take into consideration that its a "free" bonus. i mean lets face it, if your clever you can used agesis, keep a dread in range of the unit, that's -4 ld. if they do cast and you have a librarian its a psychic hood roll off. that's a pretty good defence against most psykers.


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## callred (Jun 24, 2008)

yeah but compared to the 4+ null psychic powers of a Rune Priest we lucked out on stopping psychic powers :angry:


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## Hurricane (Feb 27, 2010)

If this guide is solely for the sake of competitiveness, I think you're severely underestimating the flexibility of combat squads in this codex. For example, I take 10 purifiers and give four of them psycannons and the rest a mix of halberds and hammers. I can then take a razorback of some variety to ferry around my CC squad in while keeping four psycannons in cover to annihilate any squad that comes within 24". Sure marines are still only 3+, but now you basically have two firebases, two different scoring squads, another vehicle on the table, etc. You could even give a psycannon to the squad in the razorback so that if it blown up, the purifiers won't be left without any real firepower. Then you can give a hammer or something to the psycannon squad in order to give yourself a chance to smash anything in CC. 

Not a bad guide so far but be prepared for some harsh criticism if you are intending this guide to be about the competitiveness of GK.


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## Stephen_Newman (Jul 14, 2009)

I really think you are underestimating the loss of the shrouding. Since GK are a relatively slow army they are prey to all kinds of ranged weapons. I demonstrated this with my razorback fleet able to launch 3 twin-linked lascannons without fear of reprisal against any vehicles or dreadknights.


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

Firstly - all Grey Knights units have a Psychic Power - Activation of their Force Weapons or Hammerhand.

The choice comes down to which the unit is facing - obviously very straight forward, but it's easy to forget that a Mastery 1 Brotherhood of Psykers unit without additional help must choose between Force Weapons or Hammerhand - Indicentally, making Wraithlords relatively effective against them. They're immune to S4 Force Weapons, and S5 wounds them only a 6.

Also, Combat Squads is a biggy - it's often an overlooked rule. The Minimum unit size limitation Marines have versus the Grey Knights does not exist - the only limitations are access to a single Banner/Apothecary/Master Crafted Weapon/Staff/Justicar for the most part.

Many who want to use those items are free to do so if their list works around that.

HOWEVER, with correct tasking there's little need for that.

Compare the following:

10 Terminators, Justicar with MC Hammer, Staff, Banner, Sword, 2 Halberd's, Hammer
2x5 Terminators, Justicar with MC Hammer, Staff, Banner, Sword, Halberd

Both units have the same load out combat squad them - the difference between the two? 1 Reroll to hit with a hammer, one unit has 2 Attacks rather than 3 (and doesn't auto activated Force Weapons), and only 1 Staff.

On the flip side, they also cost 2 Kill Points, as you cannot choose to combine.

Difference between the two? 455pts for the former, 510pts. 55pts. A HUGE Difference, as just one allows you to upgrade a Captain to a Master, and an Inquisitor, or an entire Paladin, or three such units would allow you take a tooled Dreadnought.

From where I'm standing currently, it's less looking at a competitive point of view, and more looking at what's available and how relevant that is.

For example Preferred Enemy? Sure, it's a travesty without it; BUT how relevant competitively is it? Daemons is a gimped list in general competitively; on the rare chance that out of the possible number of match-ups available, Daemon's versus Grey Knights does pop up, how many times is a competitive Daemons list available? Not particularly; so as to how much this rule is WORTH rather than how much it COSTS is one to figure in.

The one good point was the alluding to Shrouding. I was highly disappointed that the Psychic Power did not do exactly that.


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## callred (Jun 24, 2008)

have to say i can't see why shrouding couldn't have stayed in its old form - sure it didn't work that often for me but when it did it saved marines and when you have <25 to start with thats a biggie!!!


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## Fallen (Oct 7, 2008)

i think your under valuing "Aegis" especially against highly psychic armies like Eldar.

but yes, in general for the special rules for GKs most arent that amazing, just good and serviceable.

perhaps Psychic powers & units next?


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## callred (Jun 24, 2008)

well i've played 5 games against my mates SW so far and he runs with 3 RP and he's yet to fail a psychic test on LD 9, he's perilled but thats different as LD makes no odds to that, so it ain't that great, at least the old aegis gave you a chance if the psycher passed the test


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

The Aegis combines with Dreadnoughts very well. Ld 6 is a tasty little thing to force a test to be taken on.


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## callred (Jun 24, 2008)

yeah and if its on a unit within 12" of a dread LD 5 is even tastier (now to fit some dreads into my list!!)


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

No, it's -Ld4. It changes the Aegis rule to -4, not a flat out -4 reduction.


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## Ferik (Nov 5, 2008)

Actually the dreadnaughts have both Aegis and Reinforced Aegis so would it not be -5LD? or is this yet anouther screw up by Ward:ireful2:


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## callred (Jun 24, 2008)

and therefore having more than one dread within 12" of another wouldn't make it -8 Ld ?or even -9 Ld ?


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

No, the fact is that the Dreadnoughts need the Aegis rule on themselves to benefit.

If you read the rules (generally a good thing to do), "Psychic Test Penalties CAUSED BY THE AEGIS ARE INCREASED to -4 if the target blah blah".

If the Dreadnought was targeted by a Psychic Power, but didn't have the Aegis, it would be cast at Ld10 rather Ld6 like it should be.


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## DuesIncarmine (Jul 3, 2009)

I played my buddys Thousands sons twice with my {3 purifiers CS 6 man w/ 4 halberds 1 hammer 1 psycannon w/ razorback Psybolt Assault Cannon. 3 psybolt autocannon Dreads. 1 vindicare Assassin. Crowe}. In those 2 games I walked him both times with only 1 unit lossed in both games which was my Assassin. The Ld -4 works like a charm when stopping alot of psy test which is a 50% chance that they will fail w/ ld10


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## darklove (May 7, 2008)

Threadomancy! Member since 2009? You should know better, sir. unish:


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