Welcome to the codex review for Grey Knights. Unlike Space Marines and their codex review by Desc440, there are a lot less things to review before getting to the actual units within the codex so we will be going through these probably quite a bit quicker and I am going to combine some of the early posts given the lack of options in comparison. I was hoping to have the Weapons of Grey Knights done first but still finalising the spreadsheet math there, look out for it soon. First off, we will look at the army wide special rules and along with the Sanctic Discipline.

Special Rules

Rites of Banishment: Baby Smite. Grey Knights get the awesome advantage of every unit (sans vehicles that are not Dreadnoughts) being a psyker. Thankfully, Games Workshop was not super silly and made sure that Grey Knight units did not get the full Smite version but rather “baby smite”. Essentially, range 12″ instead of 18″ and no chance for D3 Mortal Wounds (though straight 3 against Daemons). While this is a serious kicker if you were planning on doing Smite spam (that extra 6″ makes a big difference), it reinforces MSU for Grey Knights as each new unit gets a near guaranteed Mortal Wound once within 12″ and is a general increase in firepower across the board. Running something like two HQs, four Troops and two Dreads (easily fit into any GK list) is essentially another 7-8 Mortal Wounds at 12″ – that’s a Dreadnought gone. Smite is hard to aim though (placeholder for post about this) so it’s unlikely you will be able to get those Mortal Wounds stacked like that except in rare circumstances (deep striking Turn 1 for example).

There are other options within Grey Knights that modify this such as Brother-Captains doubling the range (24″) and stronger but often shorter ranged versions (i.e. Purifiers). Each of these will be reviewed in turn at their respective times but with Brotherhood of Psykers (see below), your Grey Knights are getting a very reliable handful of extra mortal wounds once they are within 12″ of the opponent.

More importantly thought, each Grey Knight unit is counted as a Psyker. While this opens you open to certain units (i.e. Culexus Assassin), in general this makes you able to defend against psychic powers much better and carry around extra utility with a Sanctic Discipline power. Each Strike / Paladin squad able to Gate of Infinity anywhere in any given turn? Does not matter if your opponent turns one into a red mist, the next one can use it, too. This flexibility is very powerful and picking which psychic power for each unit is very important.

Knights of Titan: It is the exact same as the Space Marines Defenders of Humanity, your Troops are special on Objectives and unfortunately this made Terminators cost an extra 2 points… We will get to that in their portion of the review but this is helpful for the Strike Squads you will already be taking and not much else. Grey Knights do not have many Troop options (Strike Squads and Terminators) and have base units which are expensive. The main thing here is making sure any Grey Knights detachments which include Troops do not have any other non-Grey Knights units with them. This is somewhat problematic for list building as Grey Knight HQs are expensive and even the cheap(ish) ones like the Techmarine are not amazing (being nearly double the cost of a normal Techmarine really limits one’s effectiveness as a cheap HQ). This means to get Objective Secured for your Troops, you are paying for two expensive HQs and while most Grey Knight HQs are great (Voldus, Draigo and the Grandmaster Dreadknight (GMDK) come to mind), it’s still an expense to be paid.

Digressing… Strikes are a strong unit – the Storm Bolter is so effective in 8th edition given it’s Rapid Fire 2 profile, along with their melee prowess (Falchions + Hammerhand are pretty decent with D3 wounds each) and Smite, so its certainly worth getting the Battalion for them (along with the extra CP) but keep in mind the taxes you need to pay if you’re bringing along other Imperial units in another detachment (i.e. 2 GK HQs plus other HQs). Strikes with Gate of Infinity do make excellent objective grabbers when Knights of Titan is turned on and I do mean excellent.

Brotherhood of Psykers: Almost more important than Knights of Titan, Grey Knights get +1 on psychic rolls and deny rolls if in a Battle-Forged army with only Grey Knight units. This makes Smite cast on a 4 (i.e. it falls only 1/12 times) along with Purge Soul (ew) and Astral Aim (eh…) with the more important psychic powers (Gate of Infinity, Sanctuary and Hammerhand) only failing 1/6 times. Those are really strong odds before we include Denials so let’s not forget the added bonus to deny against opposing enemies, even with just your basic Strike Squad. If you’re looking at casting lots of Smite, making sure you have an army which allows this for your Grey Knights is really important.

And They Shall Know No Fear: Same as Space Marines – re-rolls on Morale. Grey Knight units, same as Space Marines, are unlikely to require this too much given MSU appears to be the way for Grey Knights (see – Smite). A large squad of Interceptors or Strike Squad may be utilised to maximise Psybolt Ammunition but in general, smaller units are the norm for Grey Knights. ATSKNF ensures those small units are less likely to lose that last member to a annoying 6 on a Morale test but doesn’t exactly allow larger units to ignore Morale unlike some other armies (kind of ironic really…).

Daemon Hunters: Like Rites of Banishment, Daemon Hunters is just mean icing on the cake for Grey Knights against Daemon units, allowing them to re-roll failed wounds in combat against them. Effectively, you get half of Girlyman in combat for your entire army against Daemons. Very niche but given the strength of Daemons currently, also very useful. Still does not make Grey Knights a combat army, even against Daemons (see Storm Bolters – Rapid Fire 2).

Teleportation Strike: The flexibility this offers a Grey Knight army during deployment is amazing – essentially almost every Infantry model / unit has this option (Dreadknight has to pay 10 points for it and some units like Dreadnoughts / Purifiers pay a CP for it through Teleportation Chabers) to ensure the double tap of Storm Bolters on the turn they arrive. Great during deployment to also create a pseudo null deployment and limit firepower if you are not going first and to try and counter your opponent’s first placements in the alternating deployment method of 8th edition. It’s not great to always plan on Deep Striking X units but unlike most armies, the option to reserve key units for a big alpha strike or mid-game launches gives a lot more tactical flexibility to a Grey Knight army (even if they are in an Imperial Soup detachment).

Sanctic Discipline

The most important of the psychic powers (2 through 5) are all best applied to bigger units – the more models in a unit the more use you are getting out of the power but it’s important not to include a single big unit for just this purpose, it will get picked on quite easily. If you are going that route to maximise your Sanctic power effectiveness, make sure you have multiple options and keep in mind the opportunity cost of losing more Smite. With that in mind, let’s look at what is a very strong psychic power table.

1 – Purge Soul: Effectively a worse Smite with a few key changes. One, you can pick the unit and two, your high Ld models can pick on low Ld units. Unfortunately, high Ld in 8th edition means 9 and since most units get free Sergeant upgrades now (why do Shadow Spectres have to pay for their Exarch? Not that they should complain given their base cost anyway…), they are at best, getting a +2 against really low Ld models and more likely a +1. Okay for sniping but the opportunity cost of the other powers is high. I would only take this on your HQs if, big if, you have no use for the other powers. Unlike Smite, it simply does not go off after you roll 4+ for your warp charge dice and requires more hoops to jump through – you could potentially do a lot more damage with it but the reliability for 1 Mortal Wound from Smite is too important for a standard squad and the opportunity cost of not taking one of the below powers sans VoD is too high for your HQs.

2 – Gate of Infinity: A great option for a lot of standard Grey Knight units, this offers the Grey Knight army unheard of mobility (unless you have pointy ears). While you can only cast it once, each unit being able to threaten this at any given time can turn Maelstrom objectives into easy to grab pieces (particularly combined with Knights of Titan) and board placement an essential non-issue. Combine this on slower moving units with faster ones like Interceptors and Storm Ravens, and what is normally a very plodding army can have a significant component of mobility that will take some opponents unawares and leave others planning meticulously to account for all the variables. Not needed on every unit as you can cast it on a unit within 12″ but certainly having a handful of units with this power is important. Changing the psychic powers of your basic units can also mess up opponent target priority.

3 – Hammerhand: Another great option for standard Grey Knight units, Hammerhand turns decently generalist units into, well not combat monsters but something to look out for. Standard Grey Knights with Falchions hitting on 3’s and wounding vehicles on 4’s suddenly do around 5 wounds to T7 vehicles (assuming five man strong squad). That’s pretty bloody decent for your standard squad. Turn Hammerhand lose on something a bit more beefy like a Dreadknight who now essentially wounds everything on 2’s and you up the damage and reliability in combat a lot. Grey Knights are not a combat army and while losing the ability to cast Hammerhand on everything each turn is hurtful, in an edition where the wound chart is much less forgiving, +1’s are great. The major downside to Hammerhand is needing to pick the unit before your shooting or charge phases – the unit in question may end up no where near combat so smart planning is required. It does last an entire game turn though so using it as a deterrent in a Thunderbubble type style (Paladinbubble!) is also effective.

Between Hammerhand and Gate of Infinity, you have the two powers I would say are going to be most common on your Grey Knight units. The final option being…

4 – Sanctuary: Great on certain models / units. Anything with an invulnerable save to start with – Draigo, GMDK, Paladins, etc. will all love getting a +1 to their invulnerable save turning each of them into 2++ , 3++ and 4++ respectively. Paladins with Warding Staves in combat will also be super durable with Sanctuary on but also lose out on combat efficiency this way (remember as well, you can cast Hammerhand and Sanctuary on Paladins to make a strong deterrent to shooting and assaulting; they are an expensive unit but this can make them a great tarpit and mess up with target priority). You can also use it on any given Grey Knights unit (including vehicles!) to get a 5++. Key units at certain times will enjoy this; last couple of Grey Knights standing on an objective Turn 7 with some plasma coming their way? Make sure you get a 5++ at the worst. Dreadnought about to be torn into by a Daemon Prince? Here, have a 5++. Land Raider looking at some deep striking meltaguns? Have a 5++! Where you cast Sanctuary and when is important so having a couple of units with Sanctuary is not a bad idea but knowing how you are going to use it is very important. Running a GMDK means he will likely get Sanctuary until he is dead but then who is your back up unit? Even if it just means encouraging your opponent not to shoot at that unit, the more you can control what your opponent decides, the better.

5 – Astral Aim: Many of you may be grinding your teeth over my eh… comment above towards Astral Aim and rightly so. Astral Aim is certainly not a bad psychic power. In fact, it’s a very good psychic power just with niche applications. You firstly do not want to hide a unit where it cannot see anything and fire with impunity using Astral Aim – what happens if the power fails (1/12 still happens, plus denial opportunities)? It’s certainly useful in that regard if you do not want to Advance a unit to get into firing position or are stuck behind some terrain because an objective is there (for either late game or Maelstrom purposes) but its real importance is being able to counter your opponent’s moves. They hiding some Guardsmen on an objective? Used some vehicles to block LoS to their important units? Here – have some Astral Aimed dakka. Astral Aim is very situational but will likely come up as important every game so having a model with it is certainly not a bad idea but I would not be putting this on a unit if you have some decent support characters. Astral Aim does have an 18″ cast range unlike the rest of the Sanctic Discipline, so can be used from quite far away.

Also, throw in no cover save bonus – slightly more applicable on a day to day basis and nothing something to be overlooked, particularly for that second or third power on a support character. No cover save can be as good as -1AP in certain circumstances.

6 – Vortex of Doom: The “big bad” power of this table, VoD requires a hefty 8 warp charge value to be cast (only a 7 with Brotherhood of Psykers) but is mindless in its aiming much like Smite. If you can hit a bubble-wrapping unit, this power could potentially do a lot of damage if it goes off, doing D3 Mortal Wounds to it and any unit within 3″ of that model. *slams on the brakes* The problem? The chain reaction happens from the model so even if you’re smashing into a massive Conscript line, the front most model is unlikely to be within 3″ of any other unit. If you could somehow hit an aura buffing character from behind with this, you might have some luck but anyone that allows you to do this should just surrender anyway. VoD does allow you to do D6 Mortal Wounds if you roll a 12+ on the power (aka Perils). This can certainly happen without Perils thanks to Brotherhood of Psykers or Psychic Channelling but a 50% chance of experiencing Perils is not worth it. All in all – you get a full Smite in terms of damage at over double the difficulty to cast and still at 12″. The opportunity cost of taking VoD over four of the best psychic powers around for an army of psykers is simply too high.

Grey Knights come with great psychic powers, the ability to use them, reliable Morale, flexible deployment options for the vast majority of their units, baby Smite spam and the standard Objective Secured with added bonuses against Daemons. A great host of special rules which although does not always compare to the awesomeness of things like Chatper Tactics / Legion rules, gives the army unique benefits in what they do well.

MSU of Strike Squads gets a lot of psychic flexibility and Smite available while also allowing more CP to be utilised. If you’re not taking advantage of this with Grey Knights, you are losing some of their key codex strengths.