Having hit the nameless Grey Knight HQ’s I think I’ll dive into the troop options. I am a lover of the troop force organization slot. This codex has two choices and both are pretty stellar, at least from my standpoint. The first choice I’ll cover is the Strike Squad.
These are the tactical squad for the Grey Knights. They run in squads of 5-10, have all the normal Grey Knight gear, rules and psy power. Their stat line is typical Astartes: all 4’s in most stats except they have1 wound and attack, leadership 8, and a 3+ save. They can also combat squad, and have the additional psy power Warpquake. They will run you a century’s worth of points for four guys and their Justicar.
So far they seem pricey, like Chaos Legion pricey. I think the points per guy are worth it considering they have Hammerhand (which is awesome), power weapon and storm bolter. A basic Marine with just a power weapon and storm bolter would run 20+ points (just basing it off the 3 point storm bolter and 15 point power weapon upgrades). See they are not as expensive as we might think, but they can get there.
Now they can get a few upgrades in the squad. The first are the ranged weapons. They can grab one “cool” gun for every five blokes in the squad. The Psilencer comes free, which is awesome…except is a heavy weapon. So…there goes useful mobility if you want to shoot this, but it is free. The Psycannon will set you back 10 points, and everyone will grab one for the squad. The points are low for how good this gun is, assault and heavy fire options and 10 points. Yeah everyone loves these. Last is the incinerator at 20 points. 20 points? Really? Why? A strength 6 flamer I get, but 20 points? Well at least the option is there, but this will probably be used as much as the Psilencer in these squads.
Now the Strike Squad can swap out their Nemesis swords for the list of other Nemesis weapons. The halberd is a mere 5 points, the falchions are 10 and so is the demon hammer. One member can also take a warding staff for 25 points. So with this list you can add some close combat versatility to your squad. If you want a bunch of first strikers grab as many halberds as possible. If you want more power weapon attacks on the charge grab some falchions. If you look to face off against big gribblies and such throw in some hammers. If you really want to have a guy stick around in close combat give him a warding staff. Personally a squad full of halberds and a hammer on the Justicar looks about prime. The 2+ initiative for the squad in hand-to-hand and the 2 base attacks for the Justicar and his hammer should put a dent in most units. Oh yeah, throw that Hammerhand in there for added effectiveness.
These guys can also purchase Psybolt ammo. This will make all their storm bolters strength 5. It is 20 points for this, but it is completely worth it. Who doesn’t want 24” assault 2 strength 5 guns? Well crazy people that is who.
The Justicar can also master craft any weapon for a cost of 5 points. This can be helpful if you have 5 spare points after building a list. I like the fact of re-rolling a single hand-to-hand miss. It is a cheap upgrade and probably worth it.
Finally, these guys can grab a Rhino or Razorback for transport. They can also Deep Strike, which gives them another level of flexibility. They can buy vehicles for that convoy feel, or they can become a falling from the skies army. This is just dependent on personal play style, army list etc. etc.
So there we go…wait how could I forget the other thing these guys can do? Warpquake.
Warpquake- is used in the movement phase. It successful, then no teleport homers, icons, or Deep Strike helping item will function within 12” of the squad. Also if successful, any unit Deep Striking within 12” of the squad (after scatter dice have been rolled) will suffer an automatic Deep Strike mishap. Now this is very handy. It is measured from the squad. So, it can lead to some real shenanigans. Deploy the squad right and you can make quite an anti-deep striking footprint. This power does really neuter falling reserve armies. One thing to remember is, if you are using this, you aren’t using Hammerhand that turn. Still a very useful ability that can limit where your opponent, if they have any, deep strikes his forces.
Well there is the first of the two Grey Knight troop choices. Next will be the Grey Knight Terminators! They are, what I think, are the best Terminators in the 40K universe right now.
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