Part 3 of the Grey Knights codex review is a lot more straight forward than Part 1 where the Psychic table and special rules can dial up the Grey Knights ability to compete on the tabletop or Part 2 where timing and use of Command Points is really important. The Relics and Warlord Traits, while important, are not nearly in the same conversation unfortunately. Let’s start with the Relics. Remember, Relics cannot be given to named characters (so two of the most important characters for Grey Knights, Draigo and Voldus, do not get any use out of these) and you can have one Relic if you have a Grey Knights Warlord for free. Also remember, the GMDK can only have the Domina Liber Daemonica, easily the worst one of the lot, so taking the GMDK plus Draigo / Voldus does lose you out on a bit of Relic support unless taking a Banner character (Paladin / Brotherhood Ancient) as well (and that’s a lot of points into expensive characters).

Fury of Deimos – Take a Storm Bolter, give it Psybolt Ammunition at all times, give it 6″ more range and add one to it’s shooting profile – aka Rapid Fire 3, S5, AP-1, 1D. It’s certainly a great free upgrade if there is nothing else to take but it’s damage increase is not that significant over a standard Storm Bolter (which are already good). If it was 2D like the Primarch’s Wrath from Space Marines, would be all over this thing like a hot potato but losing out on other options pushes this guy down the list significantly. Also, not worth spending extra CP simply to get this Relic.

Destroyer of Crys’yllix – Flat damage of 4 for a Daemon Hammer which are already great options to begin with for your high Weapon Skill characters and generally a better option than the same Warlord Trait as it works all the time rather than only when you are charging . Edit: was confusing Hammer of Righteousness here for some reason.

Banner of Refining Flame – Banner characters are interestingly more important in 8th edition with some solid affects rather than before completely at odds with what the army does. We will review more in their relevant section but if you’re taking a Banner character, upgrading their banner gives you a 6″ D6 Smite which is a lot of Mortal Wound potential but at a short range – please combine with a Brother Captain. You keep all the normal Banner effects (+1A and +1Ld) which makes the units around him quite sturdy and also makes HQ characters Ld10 for any Purge Soul fun you were thinking of.

Soul Glaive – If you are taking a Halberd, this is the way to go as you get re-roll hits and wounds along with an additional -1AP. This means most characters are S5 to get hitting on 2’s and wounding on 3’s with re-rolls. Throw in Hammerhand and you have a decent infantry blender. I would rather go with the Destroyer though as you are likely going to have a re-roll in some capacity (Draigo or Grandmaster) to hit and the higher strength will wound T4 and less on 2’s regardless and not be relying on re-rolling 5’s to wound tougher targets. Hammerhand though with re-rolls does a decent job of covering this weakness but the 4D beats D3D all day, every day. It’s not a bad option but Destroyer comes out on top.

Domina Liber Daemonica – -1 leadership for Daemon units within 6″. Terrible – although Daemons are doing well, they are not the only army that you play against and a -1 Leadership is pretty poor. If you are taking a named character plus GMDK, this is the only Relic you can take assuming no other characters in the army so you might as well on those rare occasions its needed but otherwise, never take this.

Cuirass of Sacrifice – This is probably your default choice and everyone wishes it could be taken on the GMDK, you get your 5+ FNP against all wounds (including Mortal Wounds) for an infantry model. Likely your default choice (combine with rulebook Warlord trait for a 5+ and then 6+) unless you are using the Banner or want to make your character even stronger in combat.

Grey Knights do not have a lot of strong options for Relics and a lot of them are hard to use in terms of the main characters that Grey Knights want to bring to the table. The most obvious exceptions here will likely be Brother Captains or Banner Characters. The Banner is a decent option to bring more Smiting power but you want these characters combining in this case while the Cuirass is an obvious durability improvement. Both of the weapons are solid but the Destroyer wins out with its flat 4D (Edit: I will run the math and look at it in the weapons of 8th Grey Knights edition) while the Fury is a nice option but 1D holds it back. Domina sucks. So you’re looking at the Banner / Curiass as your first ports of call and if you are after some combat improvements, the Destroyer.

And with that, let’s head to the Warlord Traits. Remember, you can pick any Character to be your Warlord and only need it to be a Grey Knight to choose from below. That being said, like your Relics, two of the most important Characters are going to be Draigo and Voldus who have their trait set, Stern is also a semi-decent option and his set so you are looking at the GMDK, a Brother-Captain (but Stern gets quite a bit more for +7 points) or a Banner Character. Which character you take is pretty important – your normal characters are very easy to hide compared to the GMDK but the GMDK can also soak a ton of firepower with sanctuary / heed the prognosticars up.

1 – Daemon Slayer: This is a very situational Trait, reducing invulnerable saves by 1 during the fight phase of Daemon’s only. If this was just in general, that would not be too bad as would make the GK characters a decent Warlord / HQ combat hunter. Unfortunately, it’s specific to Daemons and makes this one of the worst Warlord Traits available. Draigo comes with this one if he is your Warlord which is pretty lame but thankfully, unlike say Gulliman / Azrael / Abaddon, Draigo does not have any Command Point bonuses attached to being your army’s Warlord. So make sure you have another character to take something useful.

2 – Hammer of Righteousness: Add 1 to wound rolls on a turn you successfully charged. Combined with Hammerhand this can be pretty devastating but for most characters, particularly your Grandmasters / Brother-Captains / GMDKs, you’ll be having something that improves strength (i.e. a Daemon Hammer or some description) meaning you wound on 3’s mostly. +2 on that really only becomes useful for S4 characters against T8 targets which are not common. You also only get this benefit when you charge meaning there is less of a counter-attack threat, particularly with Heroic Intervention. Crowe has this as his set trait which helps him do damage with his sword but you’re not taking Crowe for any reason this edition.

3 – Unyielding Anvil: 6″ auto-pass for Morale checks is pretty blah for an army which already gets ATSKNF, which as we discussed in Part 1, is not that important for Grey Knights anyway given their general preference for MSU style armies to spam baby smite. It’s still certainly useful, particularly if you’re going to take large squads or against armies which try to Leadership bomb you but its general application is so infrequent, it’s not worth it. Stern comes with this option so make sure you have another Warlord option on hand.

4 – First into the Fray: is probably the standout if you aren’t taking a special character as your Warlord. A 6″ bubble of re-rolling charges is not going to turn Grey Knights into a combat army but it takes their already strong generalist army approach with good shooting and makes the combat portion more reliable. This is one of the strong options to consider for the GMDK as it makes his own charges much more reliable with the option to re-roll a full charge or spend a CP to re-roll that one low die but he is a very big target, so do not expect him to stick around for too long, even with a 3++. Having this on one of your backfield or support characters like your Banners is likely going to keep it alive longer along with the additional banner buffs (+1 Attack is solid for an army with D3 damage melee weapons; your Falchion models basically become 3A on the charge for a unit that is shooting in nature).

5 – Nemesis Lord: Add 1 to the damage characteristic of the melee weapons unless they are wielding a melee weapon that is a Relic of Titan. Decent, as more damage, and reliable damage, is great. This can turn GMDKs into damage dealing monsters but also lead to a lot of overkill – most things do not stand up something with 5A hitting base 2’s, wounding on 3’s and doing minimum D6 damage (Greater Daemon Hammer hitting on 3’s, wounding on 3’s and doing min3D6D is better against more durable targets) if it has any damage on it previously. If you want your character to be a really reliable and huge threat in combat though, this is not a bad option. I would personally prefer First into the Fray as it buffs units around you so you’re more likely to get that damage from other sources but this is certainly a strong option if you are looking to play herohammer. I would just say take Crys’yllix instead which works all the time (though you do have to take a Daemon Hammer)

6 – Lore Master: You can know one additional psychic power from the Sanctic table. This gives most characters half of the table while it gives Voldus, who has to take this, all but two of the powers. That’s great flexibility in terms of options for powers, you can make sure you grab the handful of powers you want to take and then take one of the more situational powers such as VoD, Astral Aim, etc.

I would toss up between First into the Fray and Lore Master for the best two Warlord Traits here in terms of helping the army and providing some more flexibility for the army but do not compare to Storm of Fire or even Adept of the Codex. Better than the book Traits though, so winning on all sides.

We will start on the actual unit reviews next – named characters first :).