The final heavy support choice for the Grey Knights is the Purgation Squad. These are the Devastators/ Havocs for this army. If you have been following along you can already guess what they can and how they will be armed.
These guys are no different than there Grey Knight brethren when it comes to wargear, rules, stats and number per squad. They have Hammerhand and also the psy power Astral Aim. Heck they even cost the same amount of points as a Strike Squad and can grab up to five extra guys exactly like Strike Squads. They also have the same options for transport (Rhino/Razorback). They have one main difference though, and we can all guess it….they can take up to four special weapons (but let’s face it there is only one real choice).
 |
| This guy and three more just like him! |
Astral Aim- is a shooting phase power. If successful it allows for the squad to shoot at an enemy unit that is not within line of sight. Now the targeted unit must still be within the weapon range. The targeted unit will receive a 4+ cover save against these shots and that cannot be modified (no going to ground bonus or techmarine defense bolstering). It also allows for shooting outside of the Night Fight distance+++++++. It also states that you cannot shoot units within transports. It is great they put that sentence in there; since people would do just that (you know who you are). This negates that silliness and unneeded arguments.
They have the regular Grey Knight upgrades; replace sword with halberd +3, demon hammer +5, falchions +10 or one warding staff +25, psybolt ammo +20, master craft the Justicar weapons +5 ea and the Justicar can get a teleport homer +5. Wait what? This squad can get a teleport homer? I think it a bit strange this squad can buy a homer. I would have thought they put it in the Strike Squads. Weird. They also get halberds at a small point reduction. I’m foggy on that as well. I guess they are cheaper since this is a shooting unit and not a fighting unit? I guess that is why. Hell I have no other logical idea, so we’ll go with that.
Oh yeah, they can also take 1-4 special weapons. Now these are the Grey Knight specials so no big surprise here. They can swap their storm bolter and weapon for an Incinerator for free, Psilencer +10, Psycannon +20. Free Incinerators are great, but they compete against Psycannon and everyone knows how popular they are. The Psilencer is still out as a choice, unless your area demands their use. The Psycannon is still the 400pound room filling Gorilla weapon. If you can take up to four of these then why wouldn’t you?
If the option for an upgrade to psyflame ammo was available, then maybe there might be some Incinerators being taken. I think they missed a grand opportunity here to get this squad to be more than a Psycannon platform. Why not psyflame ammo for # points? Is it so much better than psybolt ammo, which is everywhere in this book. Strength 6 flamers are cool, how awesome would strength 7 be? Would it have broken the unit? Doubt it. However, they didn’t give this unit that option so it will be ever full of Psycannons, or better yet not being used. Why? Well look at the interwebs or my last review. If you are’t using twin-linked autocannons then you aren’t using Grey Knights correct.
I can say I have seen the four Psycannons and Astral Aim put to great use. A 5 man squad (ran by my friend Lew) sat behind cover and ripped open three Rhinos and decimated a squad of Plague Marines (run by other friend Mike). They can be quite an effective unit. If the cover saves were better, than it might have been a different story. Still it was quite impressive in four rounds of shooting, thank you Night Fight.
No comments:
Post a Comment