Editing Warhammer 40,000/6th Edition Tactics/Grey Knights (section)

===HQ=== 

*'''Grey Knight Grand Master:''' Your big customizable HQ choice, and by far the best unit of this army, no matter [[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Daemonhunters|which]] [[Matt Ward|codex]] you're talking about. Although he costs a lot more than a regular marine commander with similar stats besides having BS6, he is a psyker, comes with terminator armor (which you sadly can't remove if you don't want it), and can equip any of the Grey Knights' heavy weapons, meaning he can actually take advantage of his high BS. He can also take all the stuff available for Grey Knights, including an Orbital Strike Relay, [[cheese|rad]] & [[awesome|psychotroke]] grenades ([[Snowflame|the latter letting]] [[Doomrider|so much hilarity ensue]] - it's damn uproarious to eat popcorn and watch the Swarmlord cowering in fear, Black Templar Terminators beating the hell out of each other, or twenty [[Ork]] boyz having so many different bad trips that the battlefield becomes the film set for Gremlins 3). His main selling point, however, is Grand Strategy. Grand Strategy gives a special skill to D3 of your units:
**The following Grand Strategy abilities are:
***''Hammer of Righteousness:'' Lets the unit(s) re-roll any to-wound rolls of 1 for the rest of the game. Maybe you could take this if you feel like fooling around with units full of daemon hammers or are using a ton of psycannons against stuff that they'll wound 2s, but you have better options.
***''Shield of Blades:'' Gives the unit(s) counter-attack. Pretty good choice, letting your opponent know that your unit is going to really inflict some pain in close combat if they don't get to charge. If you're using Draigo and a Paladin army, this is good choice.
***''Spear of Light:'' Gives a unit scout, which isn't as good now with outflanking nerfed meaning you can't combo those together.
***''Unyielding Anvil:'' Inane name, but this lets the selected unit(s) claim objectives as if they were troops. Unless you're using Draigo to make Paladins troops, this is probably your best pick. Interesting thought - would this make a Dreadknight scoring? [[Matt Ward| Your Spiritual Liege]] says yes, it would!

*'''Grey Knight Brother-Captain''' - Pretty much the same as a Grand Master, with the same options. Only difference is that he doesn't have Grand Strategy, can't take Psy Mastery Level 2, has one less BS, and is 25 points cheaper. He's mostly overshadowed by other choices, many players will gladly spend the extra points for Grand Strategy and if they don't want to spend as much they'll usually get an Inquisitor.

*'''Brotherhood Champion''' - The only Grey Knight (as in, not an Inquisitor) HQ choice to not wear Terminator armor, though he does still have have artificer armor (so he can fit in Rhinos and Razorbacks). The Brotherhood Champion causes the unit he's in to re-roll failed rolls to hit on the charge, so he's the closest thing to a Chaplain the Grey Knights get, and his weapon (which only he can use) also gets to re-roll his failed rolls to wound. He has better WS and I than the other Grey Knight HQs, but can't replace his weapon and the only wargear choices he gets is upgrading his storm bolter with psybolt ammo (this can turn off some players). He's also unusual in that he [[The Book of Weeaboo Fightan Magic|doesn't attack normally and he has to pick one of three stances in the assault phase]]. 
**"Sword Storm" has the Champion make a single attack against every enemy in base contact with him (so stick him in the thick of it). 
**"Blade Shield" means he does not attack but can reroll any saving throw he's called upon to make. With this, the guy is your tarpit, with rerollable a 2+ and a 3++.
**"Rapier Strike," which performs D3 Initiative 10 attacks (+1 if he charged) to any Independent Character or Monstrous Creature in base contact. 
*If he dies in melee combat, then he can perform a psychic test to perform one final attack against another enemy model; if it hits, the enemy dies, no saves allowed. He only has one Wound, too, which means he may very well end up using this attack. Can be useful as an expensive "torpedo" unit against ''even more expensive'' enemies like Tyranid critters, or as a one-man tarpit unit to lock whatever you want in close combat while your other boys walk to the doom of their enemies.

*'''Librarian''' - Oh, how we love this guy. A psychic specialist, wears Terminator armor and has a psychic hood. He can take as many psychic powers as he likes and can be upgraded to cast up to three of them per turn (which is probably the reason Grey Knights have no psyker special character), but you have to pay for each psychic power you take, so don't take anything you won't need. What make him awesome, however, are precisely his powers. He has access to Smite and Vortex of Doom from the standard marine Codex, and a ton of other choices that make him a deadly HQ in any phase:
** Quicksilver, which makes a target friendly unit within 6", including the Librarian and the one he's attached to, Initiative 10. You probably won't use this too much because of the initiative bonus granted by halberds, but might be handy to take against high initiative units like Wyches and Genestealers.
*** '''Alternate Opinion''' This power allows you to kit the librarian and the unit he's joining (most likely of terminators) with swords (for the boosted invulnerability) or falchions (for extra attacks) and still enjoy the benefits of being faster than whatever you're fighting against. 
** ''Might of Titan'', which gives an extra point of strength to a target friendly squad within 6" (including the Librarian and the unit he's attached to) and lets them roll [[FATAL|an extra D6 when rolling for penetration, which stacks with Hammerhand]], so whatever he and his squad hit is going to die, no matter what it is. 
*** ''' Note ''' Remember that this and Hammerhand apply BEFORE the 2x Strength increase from Daemonhammers. Which would mean S12 if it was POSSIBLE to go above S10. As is, you're maxed at 10, but that's still retardedly strong.'' 
** ''Warp Rift'', which uses a template that forces everything caught in it to take an initiative test or they die, and vehicles suffer an automatic penetrating hit. Your Librarian just took a level in badass. Especially effective against Necrons due to their low initiative.
** ''Dark Excommunication'', which negates all daemonic gifts in base contact with Librarian before blows are struck, as if daemons weren't screwed enough already. This keeps them from hiding behind Blessings of the Blood God, removing power weapons and rending. Not as needed anymore since Bloodletters can't ignore the armor on your terminators anymore, and besides you've already got enough demon-raping assets so don't kill the fun.
** ''Sanctuary'', now affects all enemies and makes any enemies with 12" of the Librarian that want to assault any Grey Knight codex units (this includes non-Grey Knights) take a difficult terrain test and a dangerous terrain test. Got hit pretty badly by the new rules since units can take armor saves and against dangerous terrain tests, but it can still ruin tarpits or vehicles.
** ''The Shrouding'', gives a unit within 6" stealth, and if it isn't in cover it receives 6+ cover. Nice.
** ''The Summoning'', pulls any friendly unit except for vehicles (unless they have right upgrade) to the Librarian using Deep Strike Rules. Kinda fun to watch your opponent's face as you summon Palatanks right before being charged by an enemy unit who thought the Librarian would be their new piñata.

====Special Characters====

*'''Lord [[Kaldor Draigo]]''' - HE MAKES IT HAPPEN - The obligatory "super special character who costs more than a Land Raider" of this Codex. Creed has donned his <strike>robe and wizard hat</strike> Terminator armor and gotten hold of some of the shiniest toys mankind has to offer, making him an outrageously powerful fighter, nearly impossible to kill (2+ armor, 3+ invuln, Eternal Warrior) and a nightmare against any dedicated Daemon player, or any psykers because his sword (a regular force sword with Master-Crafted and Daemonbane) becomes strength 10 when fighting either. Even the Swarmlord and Mephiston should fear him (Thanks to the fact that all Draigo needs is one wound to ID him. But this is probably going to change when the sixth edition codex is released). If you ever wanted to field a 1,000 point army consisting of 14 models, he makes Paladins Troops (See: Draigo's Shiny Dozen). On the other hand, he sucks in the shooting phase (with just a storm bolter and an anti-daemon/psyker flamer attack that he hardly needs either) and he'll have serious trouble with trying to take on other Terminators as his force weapon is AP3 to which Termies and their equivalents can take their 2+ save against. Anything with a AP 2 weapon and a 2+ save will most likely win combat against him. If you take him, be mindful of his flaws and build your list to get over those disabilities (remember to supply him with enough warp dust as long as he's around). Don't forget he gets Grand Strategy.

*'''Grand Master Mordrak''' - A Grey Knight Grand Master with a Daemonhammer, who can perfectly deep strike on turn one. Mordrak is unique in that he isn't an Independent Character; instead, he can be accompanied by a unit of up to 5 <strike>Daemons</strike> '''Ghost Knights''' for which he counts as an upgrade character. Ghost Knights are standard GK Terminators except their only upgrade choices are taking a Brotherhood Banner or alternate Nemesis weapons. They have stealth for +1 to cover saves (mostly useful against plasma/melta), and more can spawn if Mordrak takes a wound. The flip side is that if Mordrak dies then all the ghosts go with him, so watch out for units that can pick their targets. You can still throw Look Out Sir! rolls for him, but only at a 4+. Mordak gets the Stealth benefit as as well as long as at least one Ghost Knight is alive, since models with Stealth now pass it on to their whole unit.

*'''Brother-Captain Stern''' - A solid close-combat character, pretty much a standard Brother-Captain with a force sword, with two gimmicks. His first gimmick is the Strands of Fate ability, in which he can reroll a single to-hit, to-wound, or saving throw per turn; however, for every such roll you take, [[Tzeench|your opponent also gets to make the same kind of roll]]. Don't go abusing it or a canny opponent will use it to screw you over. His second gimmick is his psychic power Zone of Banishment, which makes Stern forgo his normal attacks, but causes every unit within 6" of him (friend and foe) to make a Strength test or be instantly removed as a casualty (and Daemons have to reroll this test if successful). This can be very risky if he's got a squad following him (as any respectable Independent Character should), but it makes him an absolute steamroller against tarpits.

*'''[[Castellan Crowe]]''' - Your average Brotherhood Champion with a better statline, some extra toys and +50% points. Sacrifices Force Weapon for <strike>a Daemon sword</strike> a stick that's considered a normal weapon, rends on 4+, and makes units assaulting you gain Furious Charge and re-roll to hit (Yes, he buffs your ''enemy'' if [[Derp|''they'' charge ''you'']]; this increases the chances of being able to Heroic Sacrifice [[Abaddon|something really nasty]] if you deploy him right). In 6-th edition 4+ rending is EXTREMELY cool, because this one of the few non-monstrous AP2 (most of the time) close combat weapon without that "unwieldy" trash and it autowounds ANYTHING up to '''and''' including biotitans on a 4+. He's also a Purifier and therefore gets the Purifier psychic power described below. He's a surprisingly good one-man tarpit against hordes (think Ork Boyz or Gaunts) since he wounds half of them each turn in combat and can stay there for a long time with his rerollable 2+ and 4++. An easily overlooked aspect of his psychic power is that it is subject to his 4+ auto rend as per the FAQ. That means that you have a 1/2 chance of wiping out the entire squad on the first turn if they don't have an invulnerable save. Moreover, he's the Purifiers' boss, and makes them Troops, which you should really consider doing, since Purifiers are awesome. In short, if you want to [[cheese|spam psycannnons from hell to breakfast]], Crowe is the tax GW makes you pay for [[cheese|that tactic]], and if you're fighting against tarpit armies or CC-oriented forces, if given enough time he can clean entire blobs by himself while having them locked in CC, giving your other units free time to roam the table and eat the rest of your opponent's forces. Otherwise, you should be looking elsewhere - he's an expensive non-independent character and thus will quickly have a lascannon tearing him new one and taking away a 175 point chunk of your army, which you can't afford with Grey Knights.