Grey Knights Codex First Impressions

Hey everyone, Refyougee here again with an overview of the Grey Knights Codex.  It is a wordy post (as was my Blood Angels review) and of course will be subject to change as we start getting games in with the book.  Anywho, here it is, CP'ed from the original Game Summit post:

PS: I apologize for the interruption of the GS Live Blogging, it was too much for me to do all at once and probably a bit unfair to my opponents.  I'll see if I can find a better way of doing it in the future.


So it's time for a look at the newest 40K Codex, that of the Grey Knights! A sorely-needed update to the old Demonhunters book, it promises to be an exceedingly diverse codex that provides us with many fun options. As usual, I will tackle the individual entries and options, with some final list ideas near the end. So let's get crackin'!

So firstly the 'USRs' of the book:

Psyker Bros: All Gks have force weapons (whaaaat) that give +1 to invul saves if you already have one (substituting the sword changes this). Each GK unit can cast one power a turn; if they use the force weap power ALL of their attacks cause ID for the phase. Also everyone has hammerhand (woot) and usually access to another power. Each UNIT of psykers counts as 1 psyker, so no Culexus with 30 million shots 

And They Shall Know No Fear: Do I have to explain this?

Combat Squads: Ditto. But it's really good in this list 

The Aegis: -1 to Ld of psykers targeting them with psychic powers. A nice bonus, but some of the better powers don't target any of your own duders...

Preferred Enemy: Demons: Saw this coming. Yes, this makes them really good against daemons and it doesn't end here.

Daemonbane: All nemesis weaps have this, basically daemons wounded take Ld test and if they fail they are removed from play.

Let's go to the HQs:

Grey Knights Grand Master: So here is the (generic) big daddy. Coming in at 175 pts base, he better give us some interesting options. Right off the bat, we have a force weapon, psychic communion and hammerhand as psychic powers – already we can see that he is a good force multiplier with the two latter powers helping other units out as well. He has termie armour and an iron halo, with his force weapon giving him a 3++ save in combat. He's also BS6 instead of 5, a cute little upgrade – not bad if you decide to give him some of the pricy ranged weapon upgrades.

You also have the choice to give him a halberd instead of a sword, meaning he's I7 in combat...not too shabby. Moving on, he also has one of the defining GM abilities, Grand Strategy. You roll a D3 and that many units get 1 of 4 abilities. Note that this is before deployment so you can use 10-man squads, give them an ability, and then combat squad to get maximum effectiveness. Of note are the ability to become scoring (including walkers, but not other vehicles or henchmen squads), the ability to counter-attack, the Scouts ability and getting to re-roll 1s to wound in close combat.

IMO the scoring and scouts options are the most interesting – the former allows you to build a list with minimal troops and still have a decent amount of scoring choices. This helps with list diversity because you aren't hampered by the minimal troops selection. Hurray! Scouts on the other hand becomes really interesting due to the ubiquitous GK weapon (psycannon) being reduced to a 24'' range – by scouting you can get into a better firing position WITHOUT having to move on turn 1, meaning you can fire 4 shots instead of 2 per psycannon. Scouts is conferred to dedicated transports as well, so you can get razorbacks and rhinos up the field as well (but there are no dedicated Stormraven or Land Raider options). Also of note is that you can't teleport shunt as a Scouts move, so the fabled 1st dread knight assault is dead in the water; it is instead limited to a 12'' scouts move, which still isn't bad considering 24'' inches separate you and your opponents' deployment zones.

So beyond the GS lies other upgrade options, namely the Orbital relay, a piece of wargear that lets you fire either 3 S6 Ap4 large blasts, one S10 AP1 Lance small blast (everything under the template counts as centre dot hitting) or one S6 Ap4 anti-psyker large blast with unlimited range and barrage/ordnance rules. So it is like the orbital bombardment but much better, if also substantially pricier. Rounding this out are servo-skulls that are kind of like a chooser of the slain that also reduces blast distance by one D6 if within 12, as well as reducing Deep Strike distance by 1D6. Very neat to sprinkle around the board (up to 3 per GM). Also of use are psychostroke grenades and rad grenades which, without spoiling too much, make CC even worse for the enemy.

So where does this leave us? The Grand Strategy is one of the defining parts of this entry and help make lists much more flexible and let you field Elites or HS choices while worrying less about objectives matches. He can be kitted out to be even more murderizing in close combat but Grey Knights have that ability in spades; might be interesting to use him to accompany a unit of inquisitorial henchmen in need of a bit more heavy lifting. All in all he is a great choice, but you will pay for it.

Oh, of note, this is in terminator armour but like the rest of the termies in the list, he has frag + krak grenades. This is really nice, especially if you're using something like a halberd at I7.
Grey Knights Brother-Captain: Soooo, much less to say here lol. He's 150 points, has access to all of the GM options (ranged weapons are a bit cheaper) but doesn't have the Grand Strategy. Is this worth the 25 pts discount? To put it bluntly, no. The GS is so useful I doubt we will ever see this guy hit the table which is a shame, I guess he's the new C:SM Chapter Master or Blood Angels Captain. Oh well.

Grey Knights Librarian: Now here's something cool. This bro comes in at the same cost as the Bro-Cap, has termie armour and the episolary upgrade built-in with the ability to go up to 3 powers a turn. He comes with Hammerhand and Psychic Communion and then can take any additional power for a small fee each time. These include Smite and Vortex of doom (*yawn*), and others:

-Warp Rift: JotWW but as a template (flamer) weapon. I don't think it's quite as good as Jaws because of the short range, but it does have the ability to smoke a squad full of low I models like necrons I guess. Anywho I think it's cute but nothing exceptional.

-Mind Blades: -1 to enemy T in assault, stacking with rad grenades if you have them. This is great with hammerhand, reducing even marines to being wounded on a 2+. Mind Blades counts for purposes of ID so Trygons will have to watch out for being smacked around by S10 Daemonhammers.

-Sanctuary: 12' bubble around the Libby, anything assault a unit within that bubble (this makes for a HUGE radius) takes dangerous + diff terrain tests. Brutal against Tyranids, and still great against any units that are near the 6'' limit.

The Summoning: Pick a friendly unit and it deep strikes within 6'' of the Libby, affected by beacons as usual (which the libby can take!). A very cheap upgrade on vehicles allows them to be summoned too, and when they are summoned they count as moving flat out which means hitting on 6s and a 4+ cover (but no shooting). Very interesting with which to summon cheap melta henchman squads, or maybe a Land Raider Redeemer into the fray. Happens at the beginning of the movement phase, though, so you won't be turbo-boosting with a raven and then calling the land raiders. Sorry 

The Shrouding: Friendly units within 6'' get Stealth. Yeah, this is crucial for foot lists but also awesome with tech marines meaning you can easily get 2+ Cover saves in ruins. Vehicles smoking get 3+ cover saves, as do ravens going flat out (or anything that you just Summoned). This is going to make up for the vulnerability to ap 1-3 weaponry inherent to expensive grey knights, and if you take a libby you better take this power.

The Quickening: Libby and his unit go up to I10. Nice against Eldar/Dark Eldar, but also means you don't need to grab Halberds to go before other Marines. This, The Shrouding and The Quickening are my faves so far.

The librarian also has access to the same fun grenades as the GM, and also to Empyrean Brain mines which force an enemy model to take an I test – failure reduces him to 0 attacks. Not bad against some of the nastier slower stuff. 

This guy proves to be another toolbox – his powers can make you much nastier in combat and can also be used to protect you at range or up close while still providing a psychic hood and a force weapon. He's not cheap (sensing a theme here...) but will do what you need to. Problems include being forced to take Terminator Armour (means he has to take a land raider or a raven) and he doesn't add much offensive might on his own. 

Brotherhood Champion: The cheapest GK HQ, and with good reason – only has 1 wound! He's got Aritificer Armour and an Iron Halo, as well as a power weapon. He also acts like a Chaplain for his squad but the differences arise with regards to his combat abilties. He picks one of three stances when in combat: 

-Gets D3 attacks against a single IC or MC at I10 – with re-rolls to wound and hit on the charge this is pretty gnarly.

-Makes one attack against each model in base contact; again, with re-rolls and possibly hammerhand, this potentially quite a few dead enemy models.

-Makes no attacks, but re-rolls all saves. This is how for 100 pts you get an interesting tarpit while the rest of your squad kills stuff. Downside is that picking this stance means your opponent will probably not bother attack him and will actually put MORE attacks into the rest of your squad, if there is such a thing. Still, could be good with which to contest objectives, I just hope you don't run into too many PW attacks.

He also has his Sacrifice power – when he dies, take a psychic test – if you pass, make one attack against an IC (he's WS7) – if you hit, the enemy model is removed from play. So, usually, 2 thirds of the time he nukes something big.disappear. Not bad for a pretty cheap points cost. He has the potential to assassinate enemy characters but also to hold them up. The question is whether or not you want to risk the D3 attacks or simply tarpit a squad until you finally die, taking out Calgar or whoever is leading the squad. With only 1 wound, a stroke of unluck is all it takes to fail 2 2+ saves, so most of the time I think you'll be picking the attack stances. This will change with the Special Character version of this guy...

Inquisitors: So all of these puny humans unlock a henchman squad each, are incredibly cheap and can take a bevy of small toys with which to buff themselves or the squads they are with. Otherwise they are all similar, and also Stubborn.

-Malleus: Can basically become a mini grandmaster if he wants, complete with termie armour and a demonhammer. Can also take a Daemonblade which has a host of random crazy (but all useful) abilities for a rather small cost. Sadly you cannot take Terminator Armour and a Daemonblade but you can give him artificer armour. This guy will definitely be built for up close fighting, kind of a GM on the cheap I suppose. Lots of awesome modelling opportunities, though 

-Hereticus: Big draw here is the Null Rod, which causes ID on psykers and lets the whole unit be immune to psychic powers (friendly and opposing). Kind of useless on GK squads, this will be to buff a squad of henchmen up. Otherwise the upgrades here are rather meh, you can tool him out for combat if you want but you dont have access to the awesome daemonblade and no way to get an invul save. Can still take artificer though. 

-Xenos: Lots of weird little toys here, but the big one here is the conversion beamer – for 70 points all-in this is a pretty cheap way to get access to the weapon  That said, it is a rather static weapon and not entirely reliable with a small blast template – of other interest is the Plasma Syphon, which reduces plasma weaps to BS1 when firing at the unit, but only if it is within 12''. Meaning the really scary stuff (leman russ plasmacutioners) aren't too scared. So while cool, many of the upgrades are rather situational and/or unreliable.

So the big thing here will be henchman squads, which provide some things GK are clearly lacking. Keeping the inquisitors cheap will be the way to go, although I'm sure it will be fun to kit them out with all sorts of funky weapons.

And now the special characters...

Inquisitor Valeria: So looks like this inq picked up all of her gear at an Eldar flea market or something; she has a Djinn blade (basically, anyways), a crapload of grenades, an invul save (woot), some runes that make her a bit more survivable in combat, a weird railgun pistol that shoots once and a pokeball-esque piece of wargear that can forever trap an enemy model shes in contact with. My problem here is the lack of force multipliers – Valeria is quite selfish in that she doesn't do much for the rest of the list which is a problem when everything is so pricy and demands synergy. So she has a bevy of cool rules, some of which you'll probably forget and most of which you won't get to use in each individual game. Still, she's not an awful assault character, I just wish she was I5 so she could smoke marines a bit better.

Inquisitor Fyodor Karamazov (heh): So the lazyboy inquisitor is back in full force. He's an S5 T5 2+ Sv grandpa using a TL Multi-Melta (relentless no less) to keep the kids off his god damn lawn. He's got a power weapon and is also relentless with a full complement of grenades and he also chooses when to fail/pass Ld tests. Oh and he extends Ld re-rolls to friendlies within 12''.

Lastly he has an orbital relay (as described with the GM) that he can place on the head of any friendly model even if it is in combat with no scatter. While hilarious, this is also an awesome ability, allowing you to drop henchmen beside a vehicle and blow it up with a lance blast or nuke a squad with 3 barrage S6 templates. Every turn. Yeah, this guy rocks and will make for some really awesome battles. I like the combination of lulzy and kickass 

Inquisitor Coteaz: Yeah, here's where it's at. This guy is supremely awesome for 100 point, equipped with Artificer armour and a daemonhammer with which to smoosh demons. Beyond that he has the old mystics power (nuke something coming in from reserves if within 12'' of his squad) and can re-roll the dice to steal the initiative, whether it is the opponent's or his own. Very nice ability. He also comes with some cool psychic powers that really help your diminutive henchmen survive and kill. He can also cancel out daemonic gifts for some reason, cool.

Oh and of course he lets you take henchmen as troops, which is the main reason you'd want him in your list. I'll cover this more in depth when I get to the henchmen. 

Bro-Cap Stern: So you get 3 things for 50 pts over a regular Bro-Cap – psyker mastery lvl 2, The Strands of Fate and Zone of Banishment. TSoF is not bad, essentially giving him a re-rollable 2+/3++ twice per turn but your opponent will get re-rolls as well. It is hard to say if this ability is 'points-neutral', because saving him from a power fist will be very nice with a single re-roll. Your opponent in fact gets more freedom with his re-rolls though, because they aren't tied to any single model. So, really, I don't know just how great this ability is; it may hurt more than it helps.

Lastly ZoB is a pretty crazy ability, forcing strength tests on everyone within 6' with the penalty of removal from play. Supremely good against hordes which typically have S3, meaning huge craters will be left around him, but I wouldnt expect to get it off more than once a game if your opponent is a competent one lol. Still, launching him into squads and banking on a once-re-rollable 3++ is not bad and should make even TH/SS termies tremble in fear. The problem (and this is a theme of the codex) is that so far we haven't really helped our list to be much better at blowing tanks up.
Castellan Crowe:Now here's an interesting GK, one who uses a daemonweapon. So it's not a power weap, but instead one that rends on a 4+ and gives preferred enemy and furious charge to charging enemy models. Yeah, I know. He also grants himself re-rolls to hit and wound when HE does the charging. He's I6, and has the usual other Bro Champ rules. The big difference is that as the leader of the purifiers, he has Cleansing Flame which is an amazing anti-hordes power (all models are wounded on a 4+ before combat begins) when combined with his 're-roll all saves' stance. He will charge into full 30-man boyz squads and tear them to pieces.

Did I mention that he makes Purifiers Troops? This is mondo-awesome, as for a small points increase over a regular GK they get a second attack and cheaper access to special weaps both in CC and at range. The Crowe list that takes a hearty amount of purifiers will be a scary one to face.

Oh, except he's not an independent character. ARGH. So he's going it alone in transports and can be singled out at range. This is a big problem for me (especially considering how cool the model is) and I'm not sure how to rectify it – you can hide him behind your vehicles if you want, or put him in a transport of some sort. The former to be wasting his abilities, while the latter will get pricy. I'm really not sure what to do with him, but having him flying on the seat of a storm raven sure will be funny.

Chap Master Mordrak: So this guy was crazy good in the leaked codex, but now...not so much. Anywho he's a Grand Master so that means Strategy (woot) with a thunder hammer and 4 wounds. He is not an independent character, but can come with a squad and they will all deep strike on turn 1 with no scatter. He can also generate some more duders when wounded. If he dies, the duders disappear – mitigated by the fact that he can't be singled out in CC.

But here's the problem. His 'retinue' is now limited to 5 guys max at regular GK Termie cost, and the only upgrades available are CC weapons and a bro banner. So they drop down and just kinda...sit there? They are regular termies so a 5++ at range, means it really won't be difficult to riddle them with bullets if they drop nearby...and if they drop farther away, well, they can't take ANY ranged weapons other than storm bolters and you have to pay 400 pts for 6 of them. As part of a bumrushing force they may have some use (you still get Grand Strategy) but the changes between now and his playtest version are a bit over the top in my opinion.

Lord Draigo: Aha, here's the gigantic badass we were waiting for. It's like the Swarmlord, Ghazgkull and Lysander had some kind of weird three-parented baby. If you haven't seen his profile, he's probably one of the hardest-to-kill mofos in the game and will wreck just about anything. He has the grand strategy (hurray), S/T 5, EW, a storm shield and 4 wounds. He has a force weapon that is S10 against daemons+psykers but it doesnt add +1 invul to his CC save. He has a S5 flamer template that wounds daemons on a 2+ and can cast 2 powers a turn. So yeah, he 's pretty freakin' badass.

On the flipside he costs as much as Logan Grimnar and in similar fashion unlocks Paladins as troops. Unlike Wolf Guard, however, you aren't getting access to some uber cheap scoring options – you're spending on a buttload of points to take extremely expensive models as troops. And unlike Grimnar he doesn't offer much to buff the list beyond the Grand Strategy. So as much as I like the badassery of this guy, he will doubtfully make it into competitive lists, something upon which I will expand when I get to the Paladins entry.

Elites:

Venerable Dread: So like the regular ones, but has Fortitude for a small increase in cost, something which becomes so much better with the venerable rule – you will ignore glancing hits 80% of the time, and pens roughly 50% of the time. Just a great ability (except against Eldar ). Of note is the psybolt option, which jacks your Assault Cannons to S7, and your twin-linked autocannons to S8. Psyflemen Dreadnoughts (dual tl-autocannons with psybolts) will become a winning staple of GK lists, mark my words.

Purifier Squad: So as said before, they are PAGK with 2 attacks and cheaper weapons options. Oh and they also have Cleansing Flame, which as said before does obscene things to hordes – Orks players will refuse to assault you if you tell them about the power these guys have. Did I mention they can take 2 special weaps as opposed to 1 per 5 guys? This is where the Crowe lists gets gross, taking tons of psyflemen (max 3 ven and 3 regular) and then taking a ton of psycannons on guys in rhinos who also happen to destroy hordes in CC. They're a very flexible unit that will doubtlessly see a lot of use, especially with Crowe. Oh they are also fearless, which is nice on small squads but crap on large squads. Plan accordingly.

Culexus Assassin: Very similar to the old one, but no soulless. Most of the proposed combos that revolve around spamming psykers will not work, unless you actually want to go the Coteaz route and have 6 units of henchmen with a psyker in each to get a duder that will unload tons of ap1 firepower into termies or marines or something. His gun is so short-ranged that I'm not sure how great it is, though. The nice part here is Etherium, making it rather difficult for this bro to be targeted at range (even Ld 10 fails half the time). The problem is that like all assassins, he is a huge points investment with limited survivability (T4, 2W 4++ is nothing to write home about) and in the case of the culexus you have to get up-close and personal with the rest of your army as well to do a bunch of damage. Maybe a summoning librarian could get something going here...

Callidus Assassin: The changes here are a bit disconcerting...she's become an incredibly expensive marbo that doesn't even do as much damage. She'll appear, fry a few marines here or there and then command your opponent's firepower for a few seconds and then die. She's way too good in combat for your opponent to let her live to get into assault, and since she has to start within 3'' of a unit your opponents will be able to dictate her location. Using her correctly will require using her in a supporting role, and probably employing psychic communion to better control when she comes in from reserves (sooner >later); by presenting multiple threats at once you'll give her a better shot of surviving. All that said, I'm not a huge fan yet...

Eversor Assassin: So here's a pretty straightforward CC monster; with furious charge, a lightning claw and his trademark friend zone he'll be tearing up any squad that he touches. Nothing too complicated about this guy. The problem is that he dies easier than two marines and can never join a unit...so what do you think is going to happen? Short of strapping him into a transport he will probably get pasted on turn 2 before getting any attacks in – this guy (and the other assassins) really needed a better armour save. On a side note this guy can be affected by the Grand Strategy, so maybe scout him forward and hope he survives a turn of shooting lol.

Vindicare Assassin: So the shooty guy that no one took last book is now probably the most viable – his turbo-pen shots get a value of 17 on average for armour penetration, meaning he will mess your vehicles up old school (especially with AP1). And with BS 8 (lol) he's going to hit! He'll also be hitting your sarges and hitting the off button of Lysander's Storm Shield. So yeah. He's good. But there is a downside, that is his supreme awesomeness...your opponent will be gunning for him ASAP. You can hide him behind a vehicle to keep him safe on turn 1, or infiltrate him in a bolstered ruin for a 2+ save, but EVEN then, he'll be commanding the attention of most guns that can draw LOS to him. Maybe...put him in a psychic rhino? Lol. Now he also has an exitus pistol if you want to go all rambo with him and keep him a bit more mobile. Now I wonder...can you use Scouts to embark onto an empty transport? Would allow him to setup in a rhino on turn 1. I think vehicles will be key to keep lanes of fire blocked to this very fragile death machine.

Techmarine: Whoo boy did this guy ever get pricy. But he has a power weap and reconstruction as well as Hammerhand. He's expensive but he does have access to 2 awesome options, namely the orbital relay we mentioned before and the conversion beamer. Being able to participate much more actively in fire support is quite interesting and I hope to use him 

Henchmanz: So the fabled henchman are here in their toned-downed glory! Coteaz is obviously the most interesting with them, although a single inquisitor can unlock some melta weapons or a semi-decent CC squad. It's all about the options. A Coteaz list is probably going to want a second inquisitor so you can babysit two MM Servitor squads. But anyways...onto the entries! Oh just so I have to say this once, none of these guys have grenades lol. So if you want cheap blobs of CC henchmen you will probably want Crusaders/Redeemers

-Arco-Flagellant:Same cost as a grey hunter, with a better WS and S and !4! attacks. Very cheap anti-horde shenanigans  Has FNP instead of an armour save, but whatever. Not much else to say. Kills 2 Orks on the charge per guy which is pretty nice.

-Banisher: Lulzy anti-daemon shenanigans for a bargain price. If you have 5 points left...hey why not, right? An Eviscerator quadruples his cost, but if you have a Hammerhand guy in there he goes up to S8 with 2D6 armour pen. He really should have had 2 attacks base though...

-Crusader: Whoa. PW/SS and WS4 for less than a marine very interesting, most CC henchie squads will want a couple just to allocate the odd PF hit to them. And with hammerhand/might of titan and rad grenades you're really upping your chances to wound. Again, few attacks though...

Mystic: He's a homing beacon for cheap. Take him if you have plans for him, if not, forget about it.

Servitor: Incredibly cheap multi-meltas and heavy bolters. Plasma cannons are cheap too. Downside is mindlock (that isn't mitigated by techmarines...what?) meaning you're probably taking 2 groups of them at most. Still, triple MM chimera bunkers are something to fear and own midfield with.

Daemonhost: Cheap, but not very good. Maybe add 1 or 2 to warband squads and hope you roll decent I guess haha.

Death Cult Assassin: Now this guy is something else. 4 S4 PW attacks on the charge at I6 with WS5 for a cheeaaap cost. Loving this guy, him + arcoflagellants will be a nice combo that can tackle most squads in CC especially when supported with psychic powers.

Joakero: I want to like these monkeys, but I'm not exactly bananas about them. If I want static shooting coming out of Chimeras I'm taking Guard because they do it better. Taking him and hoping for 24'' range meltaguns is nice, but too random for my tastes. Taking him in a CC squad with a few meltacolytes isn't a crazy idea (basically 4 of the 6 results will be definitely good) but it means the 2 heavy weaps he has will rarely if ever be used. Still, I'm toying with this idea 

Psyker: So like the PBS but without weaken resolve. This list isn't really hurting for blast templates, and the real problem is Ld8. I would stay away from these guys as they are really prone to perils and anti-psyker defense like Runes of Warding or psychic hoods. 

Warrior Acolyte: Welp, here's the jack of all trades. The post-leak nerf limits them to 3 specials, so you won't be spamming meltaguns and all that jazz. Still, having access to three per squad is nice and should be enough to pop anything short of av 14 pretty reliably. Outfitting them with anything else (even power armour...what?) will be just too expensive, I think.

So that's the henchmen! All in all I'm a fan and I think coteaz funwagons will have potential...but more on that later.

Paladins: Man...I really want to like these guys, I really do. 2W termies are great and the potential of giving them FNP is sexy, but they're just so darned expensive. One redeeming feature is they get 2 special weaps for every 5 men, so clocking in at 315 pts for 8 mobile psycannon shots isn't tooo bad, but then you factor in the fact that everyone is going to be directing their S8 shots at them, and that you just took Draigo to make them troops which is an additional 275 pts...argh, it's just too many freakin points. Of interest is that in a Draigo list you can spam individual Pallies to get lots of Holocaust templates..not too shabby to have a bunch of S5 large blasts  Then take a bunch of purifiers and make them scoring with the Grand Strategy. Could work...but the stupid big squad of pallies with an Apothecary is not going to be effective.

I believe the key (in a draigo list) is to have the Supreme Blahblah lead a squad of something else...maybe henchmen...to make up for how squishy they are. And then your paladins deep strike around (you took servo skulls right?) accurately launching templates as well. We'll make this work, I swear 

Troops:

Grey Knight Strike Squads: Well well well...these aren't too shabby. Pretty cheap considering you get a force weapon and a storm bolter, as well as an amazing power in the form of Warp Quake...say goodbye to deep strikers! I'd expect every list to include at least a 5-man squad of these joes if only to keep the deep strikers at bay (oh and sorry demons...). Anywho these joes are pretty cool, they arent purifiers but warp quake really sets them apart. Also you don't have to take crowe...keep the squads cheap and give them razorbacks with assault cannons upgrades with psybolts and now you have mobile psycannons. Not too shabby for a sub-200 points razorback filled to the brim with power weapons and storm bolters (not that they have to stay inside).

Terminators: Oooouuuh, scoring Termies right out of the box. This owns. No Holocaust though. Weapon options are the same as the pallies, overall they are quite nice with one (or two) Librarians churning out The Shrouding to get Stealthy Terminators. You're only getting one psycannon per 5 guys, but there is definitely some potential here. Maybe with dread knights too, an entire list of 2+/5++ saves 

Thawn: Upgrades the Justicar for the Termies. He's expensive, but he's a scoring terminator who never dies and he gives your squad 2 psychic powers. If you're taking at least, say, 2 squads of terminators, he is totally the way to go! 

Fast Attack:

Storm Raven: Urgh, so, so bad. Already not great in the BA book, but they took out the 4 AP1 krak missiles and gave us 4 frag missiles that cause perils. Will be hilarious to nuke Tervigons and Hive Tyrants with them, AND NOTHING ELSE! Argh. So, so bad. Only redeeming part is that you can use a libby to give them a 3+ save when going flat out, and could be funny to paradrop really cheap melta vets in a coteaz list. Still not a fan.

Interceptor Squad: Grey Knights with teleporters. Yes they can shunt, no they can't do so when scouting. 130 pts for 5 of them, otherwise all the options are the same at the same points costs. Making them scoring is cool for the last turn objective shunt, as is swarming your opponent with lots of power weapon wielding, storm boltering jump infantry. Only 1 attack per guy, though...I like them regardless, will have to see how they pan out.

Heavy Support: 

Land Raider(s): You know what these do. Oh except they have a psychic power to ignore shake/stun/stirred for a tiny increase in cost. Oh and they can take psybolt/psyflame to make their weapons better. Let's be clear here though, YOU DONT GIVE THE CRUSADER PSYBOLTS. Anywho a Redeemer with S7 flamestorms is funny, especially when you give it the warp field and summon it with your homing beacon-wielding librarian. Who is inside a storm raven. Unfeasible vehicles comin' atcha. Oh I also totally want dual crusaders with Coteaz warbands inside, just to rock marines with a bunch of power weapon-wielding guardsmen.

Purgation Squad: Oh I forgot to mention Psilencers up until now, but that's because they suck. On purgation squads or otherwise. Heavy weapons in an assault army? No thanks. Anywho don't give purg squads incinerators either, purifiers get them for cheaper and aren't wasting Astral Aim in doing so. So you give them psycannons and call it a day. Astral aim is nice, lets you protect them by hiding behind a rhino instead of inside (or do both, whatever )...most vehicles have cover in some way anywho. Don't give them CC weaps, these aren't your men. Hmm, maybe just don't give them heavy weapons and use astral aim on guys already in cover...hmmmmmm.

Dreadnought: Same as the regular ones, but with Fortitude. Very nice for the small cost. Even nicer is the ability to take psybolt ammo with your autocannons, so for a total of 135 points you get a dread who ignores shaken + stunned and has 4 TL S8 shots out to 48''. One of the workhorses of this codex, I have trouble seeing lists where these won't rule.

Dread Knight: Last guy of the codex...so instead of a T7 2+/4++ monster we get T6 2+/5++ which is still quite decent. Can take a teleporter and some grossly overpriced ranged weapons. This guy looks rockin, but the problem is that he just isn't all that useful for the army. His ranged weapons kill hordes in a list that has storm bolters and incinerators everywhere..what we needed was a multi-melta, something that can hurt vehicles. Because this will be the problem Gks face against most lists, and the DK does not help us out much. It's a shame because I love the model. But yeah, he's just not that impressive.

So anywho, I want to continue this post with potential lists further down the road (like in a few days haha). But I definitely have a few parting comments:

-GK CAN build really nasty lists. A Crowe list with lots of Dreads will give lots of people trouble as nearly impregnable venerable dreadnoughts tear apart your precious tanks and psycannons add to the carnage...you'll try and get close to them but then you'll remember everyone has 2 attacks with power weapons and cleansing flame. These guys will be a pain. But it won't be a very diverse list, and not one that I will built. Still gonna make a couple GK Dreads though 
-Coteaz is another winner here, he might as well get his own codex with the other inquisitors. So many options. Anywho, you could see a mix of dread and razorback spam do VERY well, as it trumps the one thing the crowe list misses, which is melta. Or hell, play crowe and coteaz together haha.
-Draigo, Draigo Draigo...I really want to like this guy, and will work hard to make him work in a list. Gonna take a while haha.
-Karamazov is really awesome too, will be fun to play him
-This Codex is SUPER diverse, but most things are very expensive and so while I talk a lot about the crazy toys you won't be seeing them all in a single list. So no worries here 

Ok so 6000 words later, that's it for me. Enjoy reading and commenting!