As 10th Edition roars on, as do the new Codexes to bring our armies bang up to date.

This weekend see’s the Black Templars and the Grey Knights Codexes go up for preorder. Matt has given his thoughts on the Black Templars, of which you can read here. For this post though, we’ll be checking out Codex Grey Knights. We’ll also be unboxing and taking a look at the new upgrade sprue for the Grand Master in Dreadknight armour later in the article.

Is this Codex great? Or should it be banished to the warp? Let’s find out!

Our thanks as always to Games Workshop for sending us this Codex and the Sanctic Conclave to unbox and review for you all. You can help us out massively by preordering your copy through our affiliates over at Element Games, netting yourself some money off compared to RRP in the process.

Codex Introduction | Who are the Grey Knights?

The Grey Knights are are an elite faction available to the Imperium. Tougher and more powerful than a generic Space Marine, Grey Knights appear wherever Daemons need slaying.

Hailing from Titan, these silver armoured warriors specialise in defeating Daemons as well as other forces of Chaos, however they have also been know to battle Xenos when they’ve needed to.

Regardless of if you have history with the Grey Knights or not, you’ll soon be up to speed with the lore presented in this Codex. It’s been a very long time since I’ve read a Grey Knight Codex, or in fact any lore or stories that involve the Grey Knights, so it was really enjoyable catching up with where they are at in this new edition of game.

The artwork is stunning, even potentially the best artwork I’ve seen in a Codex, with a mix of old and new. They are a photogenic bunch too, the old Grey Knights. Their is one particular piece of artwork, of a Grey Knight Terminator fighting a Bloodthirster that really stands out, hoping this arrives on Displate!

New Combat Patrol

As has been well discussed on Grey Knight groups (at least the ones I’m in on Facebook anyway) the newly announced Combat Patrol, of which is also now up for preorder.

Missed the new Combat Patrol and are wondering what it contains?

• Castellan Crowe: A fantastic mini that was updated for the last Codex back in 9th Edition.
• Strike Squad (10 Minis): A staple, yet shall we say classic unit. Can also be assembled as a Purgation Squad or Purifier Squad.
• Brotherhood Terminator Squad (5 Minis): Again, like most of the range, a classic unit, but IMHO still one of the best looking Terminator units in the game.
• Venerable Dreadnought: The weak spot of the box. The old Dreads are just too small nowadays compared to Redemptors and the like.

The Combat Patrol section of this book has a really straightforward to follow painting section for the above models and will help anyone new to the army to get their models on the battlefield fully painted in no time.

I won’t got into detail, however the book moves on to the rules for these models should you decide to play Combat Patrol with them. If you haven’t played Combat Patrol before, it makes for a great introduction to Warhammer 40,000, giving you access to a couple of strats and Enhancements and are designed for quick fun games.

The Army Rule

This has recently (at the time of writing) has been covered by Warhammer Community in pretty much it’s entriety, so I won’t spend too much time on it.

In short, the Teleport Assualt Army rule from the Index returns, now called Gate of Infinity. It allows you to pick up a number of units (which varies depending on the size of the game you are playing) at the end of your opponents turn and then place those units back into Strategic Reserve, to then return to the game at the end of your next Movement Phase.

Usual cavaets apply, cannot pick units in combat, etc.

For Incursion sized games you can pick up to 2 units, Strike Force up to 3 and finally Onslaught games you can pick up to 4.

It’s still a great ability, as movement is king in this edition of 40k, especally with some of the available secondary objectives.

Detachments

The Grey Knights have access to 5 detachments, each with their own detachment rule, list of available Enhancements and Stratagems that lean into the detachment’s aim.

These detachments will allow you to play your Grey Knights in slightly different ways, but whereas with some other armies this could be quite a drastic change in playstyle, as the Grey Knights don’t have a large choice of units you’ll find more subtly changes instead.

Let’s take a look at the available options. Also, don’t forget you can still take the Grotmas Detachment, the Warpbane Task Force.

Brotherhood Strike

This particular detachment is what I would call the ‘normal’ way to play the army. It leans heavily into the army mechanic.

It’s Detachment rule is called Fury of Titan and grants any of your unit’s that are entering the battlefield using Deep Strike to re-roll Hit and Wound rolls of 1. Simple yet solid.

3 out of 4 of the Enhancements you can take again lean into Deep Striking, and are only usable when entering via Deep Strike. For example, Banishing Wave does AOE damage as your character appears from Reserves, dealing 1 mortal wond on a 2-5 dice roll to enemy units within 12″, or D3 on a roll of a 6. Purity of Purpose is probably my favourite, as I’m shocking at making 9″ charges (it grants a free Charge re-roll).

You’ll be un-surpraised to hear that the majority of the stratagems also require models arriving via Deep Strike. Here are a couple of examples:

• Combat Manifestation: 1 CP and must be used on a unit arriving via Deep Strike. Allows you to land 3″ from enemy units instead of 9″. The downside? You cannot then charge, which is a shame.
• Expeditious Exit: 2CP, so not the cheapest strat, but allows you to remove a unit from combat during your opponent’s fight phase and place them into Reserves, getting round the Gate of Inifinity army rule exception. The strat also points out that this strat is in addition to the number of units you can normally pick up using Gate of Inifinity.
• Duty Unending: Usable at the end of your opponent’s Movement phase after an enemy unit has fallen back from your unit, this 1CP strat allows you to pick up said unit and send them back to Reserves. Opening my unit up for shooting are you? Not anymore!

This detachment leans a bit too much into the Deep Striking element for my liking, but does have a all round solid detachment rule which works for all of your Grey Knights, and as seen above, has some tasty get out of jail strats.

Hallowed Conclave

Fan of Grey Knight Terminators? Well this could well be the Detachment for you!

It’s Detachment rule, called Duty Before All, allows any of your Terminator units to shoot and charge even if they fell back. It stops your Terminators from being stuck in a tarpit, and ensures you have flexability. It’s good, but not amazing.

Now then however, it has a strong set of Enhancements:

• Santic Reaper: Just gives your Terminator charatcer +3 Attacks. Simple but awesome.
• Inescapable Judgement: Can be given to any Grey Knight characters, and deals a bunch of mortal psychic wounds to any enemy units that try to fall back. On a D6 it does either D3 mortals on a roll of 2-5 or D3+3 on a 6. Downside is most probably won’t try to fall back!
• Nemesis Rounds: Allows the unit to hit on 5s when Overwatching instead of 6. Can only be given to a Terminator though.

Surpraisingly, only two strats are locked to Terminators, whilst the rest are for any Infantry keyworded minis.

Giants of the Battlefield and Grind them Underfoot are your two Terminator unique ones. The first gives your unit +1 Attacks in combat, whilst the latter does mortal wound impact hits on the charge (ties in nicely to the detachment rule).

Precognitive Strategies allows you to move an Infantry unit up to D6″ in your opponents Movement phase just after an enemy unit finishes a normal move, advance or fall back. Point-Blank Purgation is my favourite though, and can be used on any of your Infantry. Usable in your Shooting phase it grants the units Storm Bolters the Pistol and Twin-Linked abilites, allowing you to shoot in combat, with rerolls on the wounds. Nice!

Banishers

Dare I say it, but the Detachment rule for this detachment has a bit of a Chaos Space Marine flavour to it…

Channelled Force is similar to performing a Dark Pact with the Chaos Marines. Each time a Grey Knights unit is selected to fight, that unit can perform a Leadership test. Pass said test and you can pick from the following two rules to grant them. If you fail the test, you don’t get either of the special rules, but also don’t have to take any wounds, which is good, sorry Chaos fans!

You can choose between:

• Melee weapons that have the Psychic ability also gain Sustained Hits (1).
• Melee weapons that have the Psychic ability also have Lethal Hits.

Big fan of this, and probably my favourite detachment rule thus far.

Again, some fun and solid Enhancements to bring to the party, kicking off with Sixty-Sixth Seal, which grants the bearers unit with +1 AP in the Shooting phase. Sigil of the Hunt gives reroll 1s to hit in shooting for the bearers unit, whilst Pyresoul is a psychic attack that allows you to pick an enemy unit within 24″ and visable, then deal D3 mortals to it.

Want a peek at the available stratagems?

• Circle of Sanctuary: Stops Deep Strikers arriving within 12″. A 1CP strat that you use at the start of your opponent’s Movement phase.
• Warding Chant: Grants a 5+ FNP to one of your units in either the Shooting or Fight phase, but only against Damage 1 attacks.
• Chaos Bane: 1CP and usable in your Shooting phase, give your ranged weapons Anti-Chaos 4+
• Shadow of Anarch: Another 1CP strat which allows you to select one of your units in your opponents Movement phase after an enemy unit has finished a Normal, Advance or Fall Back move. Allows you to pick up your selected unit so long as they are within 9″ of the enemy but are not in combat, and then place them in Reserves.

This has taken over as probably my favourite detachment so far. It feels like its aimed towards Chaos and Daemons, but in the end is actually just a solid all round detachment.

Sanctic Spearhead

Vehicles are cool. Vehicles painted Silver can be even cooler.

Mailed Fist is the Detachment rule for this one, and it grants your Vehicles auto-Advance 6″ AND gives said Vehicles the Assualt ability on it’s ranged weapons. Floor it AND still get to shoot.

The Enhancements, as you would expect, favour those Walkers and Vehicles:

• Driven by Duty: Can only be taken by Walker models, Allows said model to Consolidate / Pile-In 6″ instead of 3″
• Quickening Foci: Reroll Charges for units disembarking from Transports
• Spirtus Machina: Grants full rerolls to Wound on units that have disembarked from Transports in the same turn.

Aside from one, all of the strats for this detachment are for your Walkers and Vehicles, so not much flexability, but still some good options here.

Abominus-Class Targets is a good one to start with, granting +1 to Wound for attacks targeting Monsters of Vehicles (strat can be used in the Shooting or Fight phase, and more importantly, is the only strat that is usable on all of your Grey Knights).

Armoured Aegis simply heals 3 wounds to a Psyker Vehicle. Redoubled Assualt allows your to fall back and shoot / charge.

Clearly this is for fans of the Dreadknight, thanks to them having both the Walker and Vehicle keywords, oh and of course the Psyker keyword. Those who love mechanised armies could get a kick out of this one too.

Augurium Task Force

The final stop on this whistle-stop tour of the detachments is the Augurium Task Force, which many Grey Knight players seem to be really keen on trying out.

The reason for this is the Detachment rule, which was previewed on Warhammer Community. It’s called Prescient Redeployment, and it’s a brilliant rule for ensuring you are getting points from objectives.

The reason for this is because, so long as you didn’t pick up the max amount of units using Gate of Inifinity at the end of your opponents turn, this detachment rule allows you to pick up one of your Grey Knight units at the start of your Movement phase instead. This means your unit can score in the Command Phase, before then being picked up at the start of your movement phase, and then come back down at the end of the phase.

But what about it’s Enhancements and Strats?

Well, Enhancement-wise you’ve got these as examples:

• One Foot in the Future: Grants a D6 move after entering via Reserves, but cannot then charge.
• Shield of Prophecy: Once per battle give the bearer and their unit +2 Toughness.
• Grimoire of Conjunctions: Grants the bearer (not the bearers unit) +4 to the Strewngth of melee weapons equipped. Once per battle only.

And Stratagem examples….:

• Redirected Strike: Allows you to put one of your units back into Reserve at the end of your Command phase, so long as said unit has the Deep Strike ability and isn’t in combat. More movement shenanigans!
• Aggressive Anticipation: Ignore any modifiers to BS or WS, usbale in Shooting and Fight phase
• Forewarned Evasion: Gives a Walker unit -1 to Hit in either the shooting or fight phase.

Combined with the Army Rule, this detachment really lets you play the Movement game, allowing for plenty of relocation.

Datasheets

It’s the big one, the Datasheets.

I’m going to run through all of the units in the book and point out as many changes as I can see that are noteworthy.

Before we start though, let’s discuss the elephant in the room

Has Draigo and Stern Gone? Who Else Isn’t In the Codex?

Kaldor Draigo and Brother-Captain Stern are not, sadly, in this Codex. GW have over this edition been culling any datasheets for models currently with either Finecast minis. Servitors are also absent from the book.

Draigo hurts. Not only was he a cool model, but he was also a key (perhaps THE key) special character for the army. Yes, Voldus and Crowe are in here, but Draigo was the main man, and from what I have seen over the last 12 months he was a regular fixture in everyones lists.

This, IMHO, is the biggest indicator yet that come next edition, and the next time the spotlight hits the Grey Knights, they’ll finally get the model refresh they crave. No longer shall their marines feel small compared to Primaris. A refresh spearheaded with a brand new (probably epic) Kaldor Draigo model (almost certainally standing with one or both feet on a tactical rock).

Back to the Datasheets…

Now let’s go through the Datasheets that are here:

• Grand Master Voldus: He’s back and he now has a Psychic Shooting attack, called Searing Purity, which is 12″ range, D3 +1 Attacks, hits on 2s, S 12, -2 AP and D2. Ommppff. His other two abilities remain.
• Grand Master: Really deserves a proper model. Master Strategist is now Warrior Strategist, reduces CP by 1. Might of Purity replaced with Might of Titan, which grants him +3 Attacks and Strength. Once per battle only, of course.
• Grand Master in Nemesis Dreadknight: Here is where we find the only new kit for this new Codex, and it’s an upgrade sprue. You can watch me unbox this below, as well as the rest of the contents of the new Battleforce that is up for preorder today, the Sanctic Conclave.

So what of his new upgrade sprue? You can view it below:

He 100% looks more the part now, and he stands out next to the ‘normal’ Dreadknights. The new flail is a little unwhelming, but does gets 10 Psychic attacks (S5, AP -1, D2) but I went for the Mace (Anti-Character 2+, Precision, Psychic, A5, S6, AP -3 Damage 3). The Sublimator has Melta 4, is Twin-Linked and is ofcourse Psychic (18″, A2, S9, -4 AP and D D6). Surge of Wrath has had a little booast, this models now always rerolls Hits, Wounds and Damage when in combat with a Monster or Vehicle.

I really enjoyed painting him, and as this was my first Grey Knight I’ve painted I wanted to go for a darker, dirtier metal. He’s so close to being finish, with just a few bits and highlights to do.

• Castellan Crowe: Champion of the Order remains the same, Foesight now allows him to make the first failed Saving throw Damage zero.
• Brother-Captain: Another make-your-own-model datasheet. All of hs abilities have changed. He now gives his unit Lethal Hits and he can reroll his Wound rolls when shooting and fighting (but only him, not his unit)
• Brotherhood Champion: Again, his abilities have changed. Now gives his unit Advance and Charge, and each time he kills an enemy character he gains a CP and an extra Attack.
• Brotherhood Librarian: Vortex of Doom is no longer an ability, is instead a Psychic shooting attack (Blast, A D6+3, S8, AP -2, D2). His unit cannot be targerted by a ranged attack outside of 18″.
• Brotherhood Techmarine: Is the only other character who can join Purifiers.
• Brotherhood Chaplain: Again, abilties have all changed. Now gives units reroll Charges and once per battle can get rid of Battle shock from a unit.
• Brotherhood Terminator Squad: Hammerhand has gone. Now gets +1 AP when figting anything other than Monsters or Vehicles.
• Strike Squad: Still has sticky objectives, but has better text explaining this!
• Paladin Squad: Gets +1 Damage on the Charge, but have lost the -1 to Wound ability which is sad.
• Purifier Squad: Sancity of Purpose now gives rerolls Wound rolls of 1, unless the enemy unit is within range of an objective marker, of which this unit then gains full rerolls to Wound.
• Venerable Dreadnought: Gives +1 to Hit for other Grey Knights that targets a unit this Dread has just shot at, which is very good. Now also has Deep Strike.
• Interceptor Squad: Still has move and shoot.
• Purgation Squad: No longer can they fire indirectly unfortunately. Now causes pinning (-2 to Movement and Charging) so long as you at leats hit with one shooting attack.
• Nemesis Dreadknight: Can still fall back, shoot / charge.
• Land Raider (all variants): No changes
• Rhino: Now gives a FNP 6+ against mortal wounds for friendly units within 6″

Grey Knight Champions | Conversions

During the datasheets I called out a couple of the units which don’t have a model. In a slightly unusual move GW have included a brief section on how to convert your own Grey Knights, which is a welcome addition in my eyes, and has some pretty helpful tips.

Crusade Rules

I love Crusade and Narrative content, which now all 10th Edition Codexes include.

There are some amazing (and fluffy) additions here for your Grey Knight Crusade army. The main mechanic focuses around Chaos Incursions, and the book contains rules for how these work during your Crusade campaign. It’s a little clunky IMO and not my favourite Crusade mechanic, but it is filled with Grey Knight flavour and I believe a lot of folk will enjoy it.

A very handy Name Generator as well as printable chart for your Chaos Incursions round out the Codex.

Battleforce: Sanctic Conclave

Before we wrap up this post I need to give a shout out to the Battleforce which is also up for preorder alongside this book, dice, etc.

Currently it is the only way of aquiring the new upgrade sprue for the Grand Master in Nemesis Dreadknight (expect a reboxed Dreadknight in the coming couple of months). For me, the box was the perfect start to an army, but equally it would be a great value ‘expansion’ box.

It includes:

• Grand Master In Nemesis Dreadknight: This could also be built as a normal Dreadknight, which makes the Battleforce a great multi-purchase box.
• 10 Marines: These could be built as Strike, Purgation or Purifier Squads. Personally going for a 5 man Strike and 5 man Purifier Squad
• 10 Terminators: Can be built as Paladins or Terminators. Tempted to go 50/50 and built 5 as Paladins and 5 as Brootherhood Termies.

It’s a great value box, and as I mentioned, not a bad shout if say you wanted to grab two.

Scroll back up to datasheets to watch me unbox the full box.

Summary

Let’s start with the positives. I strongly believe you can have a lot of fun with this Codex. It has some very fun detachments and a lot of positive changes to datasheets.

The removal of Stern, and in particular Draigo, however is really disappointing. It isn’t unusual for characters to come and go, but when you have a limited number of datasheets and you remove one of, if not the main special character from the book, players will feel it.

Now more than ever the Grey Knights feel like they are on the cusp of a complete refresh, led by a new Draigo. Either that, or GW are preparing to remove them as a faction, although I highly doubt they’ll do that, so don’t panic!

They need a size increase, a new plastic Draigo, new transfer sheets (the fact that the Codex shows off lots of heraldry, and yet they have no transfers currently in print, is bonkers) and a new Redemptor size dread are needed. Is the Venerable Dread in the new Combat Patrol and with a better profile because it’s going to be replaced soon?

One other thing that disappointed me was that the Grey Knights didn’t get the same Psychic treatment as the Thousand Sons, who in effect got a sort-of Psychic phase back. Would have loved for the Grey Knights to have gotten the same or similar.

Still, with all the grumblings aside it is still, in my eyes, a good solid Codex which will get a lot of play. I’m already planning on what to paint next…

Our thanks to Games Workshop for sending us the new Battleforce and the new Codex to unbox and review.

Published by David Jennings

Born and raised in Crewe in Cheshire, Dave is a geek through and through. Enjoys designing and managing websites. View all posts by David Jennings