Grey knights codex review

[plawolf]

It's a strength test, I think. And Daemons reroll successful ones.

Edit: Also, for added Paladin hilarity, attach an Ordo Xenos Inquisitor with Rad 'nades and the Plasma Siphon to the squad. It's the cost of another Paladin, sure, but it makes it so that on the assault, the unit they charge is at -1 toughness, and basically removes the threat of plasma shooting to that 2+/FNP unit altogether.

Cool but unless you are taking Draigo, that's two of your three Elite choices in one squad, and very pricy.

You are better off sticking the =I= with a normal GKT squad since being able to ignore plasma will mean a lot more with only one wound each, it costs a lot less and doesn't take up two elite slots.

[SonicPara]

I think Psybolts only work with ammo base weapons like all bolters, autocannons and assault cannons etc.

That is what I thought at first but Redeemers apparently get the buff to their Flamestorm Cannons?

[Lemt]

uh. This is blah. Why, because without actually saying anything, the author just rants.

ex.
"Brother-Captain Stern: I don't think there's any reason to pick him over other HQ choices. He costs as much as Mordrak, but doesn't have the advantages of a Grand Master (AKA making anything scoring). His stats are worse that that of a Grand Master too, so I'd ignore this HQ completely."

You don't describe anything he does. What's the use of this?

You missed the point of the review. It's a review, not "here's what each thing does". Read the disclaimer.

Two errors I spotted here, man.

First off, Jokaero are BETTER the more of them you have in a squad - 5 is the sweet spot, as it guarantees you get two effects from their little table.

Secondly, only three Warriors per henchman squad can take special weapons. You could give the rest stormbolters though.


Other than that, a lot of this is more opinion than fact. Try and stay neutral next time.

Good catch on the Warriors, I mixed that up with the leaked codex.
Jokaero give you +1 on the roll for special mods for each monkey beyond the first. with five monkeys, you get a +4. If you roll 6+, you roll twice more, but ignore duplicates (including more 6+ rolls). That means you can roll anything between 5 (4+1) and 10 (4+6). A roll of 5 (natural 1 on the dice) will give you an invulnerable save. Any other result will do nothing at all. With 2 Jokaero, you get +1 to the roll. That means you will never get a roll of 1 (a useless roll, literally). However, you have a chance of gaining +12" range on your weapons, one of the best results. Since the extra range is gained by rolling a 2, having 3+ Jokaero means you CAN'T get that result at all.
You'll see in the disclaimer I said I'd write about my opinions on units. Writing about how well each unit actually performs in battle will have to wait a few months.

It's a strength test, I think. And Daemons reroll successful ones.

Edit: Also, for added Paladin hilarity, attach an Ordo Xenos Inquisitor with Rad 'nades and the Plasma Siphon to the squad. It's the cost of another Paladin, sure, but it makes it so that on the assault, the unit they charge is at -1 toughness, and basically removes the threat of plasma shooting to that 2+/FNP unit altogether.

Woah, that sounds like a really GOOD plan.

That is what I thought at first but Redeemers apparently get the buff to their Flamestorm Cannons?

There's an upgrade for flamer weapons too (Psyflame ammo), but Psybolt ammo works with boltguns and other solid ammo weapons only.


Thanks for all the comments so far! I'll add a list of unit combos tomorrow if I can find the time. However, I have a M:tG tournament tomorrow AND a 40k tournament in 3 weeks, and I still have to paint a ton of minis!

[Tynskel]

I read the disclaimer. However, reviews don't say "this sucks". They say "this sucks because unit does x, when it should do y".

[plasticaddict]

"Grand Master: Hell yeah. Grand Masters have sweet rules, and great gear options to boot. Expect to see this bad boy a lot, and even two in 2k+ games. (Remember that, although his rule allows you to make Walkers counts as Troops, 5th edition rules specify that vehicles can't be scoring even if they ARE troops. (page 90 of the 5th ed. rulebook) "

Not quite, Grand Masters can make D3 units count as "scoring" not as "troops". You can in fact have your Dreadnoughts hold objectives. Also Codex trumps BRB.

[DarkLink]

I played my first 1500pt game with the new GKs using a list I wrote from memory based on internet rumors. I won vs a good SW army, though JotWW nearly lost the game for me.

I had:
Grand Master (no wargear, couldn't recall point costs and the like)

10 Purifiers, 2 psycannons, 1 Daemonhammer, Hlaberds, Rhino

6 Paladins, 2 Psycannons, Brotherhood Banner and mix of swords, halberds and daemonhammers for wound allocation

2x 5 GKSS, 1 psycannon, Rhino

2x Psyrifle Dreads



My opponent had 3 Rune Priests in Grey Hunter squads, 2 Long Fang squads, a 4th grey hunter squad and a couple land speeders.

Basically, my Purifiers made a run for his objective, killing all the Long Fangs and the GH squad he left to guard it and claiming his objective. The rest of his army was trying to circle my Paladins as they marched forward, and my Dreads blew his Rhinos out from under him. He melta'd one paladin, caused one or two wounds, and killed 5 and the Grand Master with JotWW. Paladins killed a Rhino. They did keep him distracted, and I was able to contest the objective with one of my GKSS by the time he did manage to get there. Game ended turn 6, 1 objective to none in my favor.


What I learned:
Paladins are a great, but expensive, distraction. They're too slow to likely make it into CC against most armies, but at least they have lots of guns. They need a transport, but transports are very expensive. Keep these guys cheap and efficient. Otherwise, not all that great, and absolutely not broken.

GKSS are great. Cheap scoring units that can put out good damage at range. In small games a 5-6 man unit with a single psycannon is good, as your opponent has bigger things to worry about yet a psycannon and storm bolters can still do damage. In larger games a core of 10-man units will probably be a better choice.

Full squad with 2 psycannons and psybolts are awesome. Tons of mobile firepower. Purifiers are solid in CC, too. They can kill their points in vanilla marines pretty easily, and can handle some of the nastier enemy units out there thanks to I6 and psychic powers.

If you take a Grand master, you only need two troops, since you can just make stuff scoring.

Psyrifle Dreads are great, but won't live for more than a few turns against Long Fangs. They tore my opponent's Rhinos out from under him in two turns, though. Their psychic defense is great, though they'll attract so much fire that they likely won't survive late game. I might actually consider Venerables in the future because of this.

Lack of Fearless is annoying. Not that any of my stuff ran away, but just having to roll at all is almost insulting. What do you mean, I have to play the morale game like almost everyone else, now?

[Morgan Darkstar]

Nice review i understand it's your personal view on the codex i will form my own opinions as soon as i have read it.

Regarding a certain person who seems to have a chip on their shoulder, just ignore them they just want attention.

[Lemt]

"Grand Master: Hell yeah. Grand Masters have sweet rules, and great gear options to boot. Expect to see this bad boy a lot, and even two in 2k+ games. (Remember that, although his rule allows you to make Walkers counts as Troops, 5th edition rules specify that vehicles can't be scoring even if they ARE troops. (page 90 of the 5th ed. rulebook) "

Not quite, Grand Masters can make D3 units count as "scoring" not as "troops". You can in fact have your Dreadnoughts hold objectives. Also Codex trumps BRB.

Well, the wording says they can "claim objectives as if they were troops". And since Vehicle Troops don't count as scoring, you can't claim objectives.

I read the disclaimer. However, reviews don't say "this sucks". They say "this sucks because unit does x, when it should do y".

That's... a good point. I'll go ahead and change it.

*snip*

Purifiers sure are awesome, aren't they? I'm a bit sad you didn't get Razorbacks with PsyAssault Cannons for your GKSSs, but those things are a points sink. Would you drop a Dread for that, or do you think it's not worth it?
As for Paladins, from what you say I'm not sure I'd play them. Around 400 points for a distraction is a lot, specially considering the huge amount of good, durable units in the codex. I mean, would a Knight or two have been as good at distracting? Cheaper, too.

[bonedale]

Well, the wording says they can "claim objectives as if they were troops". And since Vehicle Troops don't count as scoring, you can't claim objectives.

I believe the codex does trump the rule book.

[Lemt]

I believe the codex does trump the rule book.

It would if it said you could claim objectives. But it says you can score "as troops", so you follow the normal rules for troops scoring. And since vehicle troops can't score, well, yeah.