Warhammer 40,000/10th Edition Tactics/Grey Knights

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This is the current 10th Edition's Grey Knights tactics. 9th Edition Tactics are here.

Why Play Grey Knights

Pros

• Apparently, regular infantry is clad in Artificer Armour (2+ save) now, which coupled with a net nerf of AP makes your dudes quite a bit tougher.

Cons

• As a psyker-heavy army, you've suffered quite a lot from the power culling and rules consolidation.
  • A weird side-effect of this is that all your Force Weapons are [Psychic]. Should the opponent have any FNP against Psychic attacks (Sisters of Silence (3+), a Primaris Psyker (4+), or even your own fucking Librarian (4+)), then RAW, your melee output is going to greatly diminish as a Guardsman deflects your S6 D2 Force Hammer.
• Your anti-vehicle and anti-air troubles are brought into even brighter lights with the limited ally rules. If you want to keep to a single detachment, you need to buy a knight without question.
• Zero synergy between your Teleport Shunt and Weapons/Charging abilities. Not only do you lack [Assault] weapons, besides Draigo, you dont have many options for getting an easier charge. And some of your abilities even lock you out of Charging after redeploying, but you are not a shooty army.

Faction Rules

• Teleport Assault: At the end of the enemy's turn, you can throw a number of your units (1 for combat patrols, 2/3/4 for regular games) back into your reserves. In your next Reinforcements step, these guys can re-deploy anywhere more than 9" away from the enemy.
  • Unfortunately, all of your transports lack this rule.

Detachments

Teleport Strike Force

Special Rules

• Teleport Shunt: Any Grey Knights with the Deep Strike rule don't need to roll to advance, instead counting as if they rolled a 6 and acting as if they have Fly.
  • Unfortunately, you don't have any Assault weapons in your army outside of non-character Nemesis Dreadknights and you lack the ability to charge after advancing, so this ability is of limited utility, to put it generously.

Stratagems

• Haloed in Soulfire (2 CP): Any Psyker unit that arrives via Deep Strike or Teleport Assault can't be targeted by anyone beyond 12". Gives a decent buffer for your units before they reach within smacking range.

Enhancements

• Domina Liber Daemonica: Bearer's melee weapons get +1 to all wound rolls and +1 to damage against enemy Daemon units.
• First to the Fray: Unit with Deep Strike only. The bearer's unit will never count against your cap of Strategic Reserves units (still counts against point limits). This unit can always be set up during your first three turns regardless of any circumstances.
• Inescapable Wrath: Bearer's unit gains +1 to charge rolls.
• Sigil of Exigence: Once during the enemy shooting phase where the bearer's unit is about to be shot, that unit can immediately redeploy anywhere on the board. The enemy is then allowed to shoot someone else.

Aurellios' Banishers (Combat Patrol)

A basic intro to the Knights of Titan.

Composition: 1 Librarian Aurellios, 5 Strike marines, either 5 Brotherhood Terminators or 1 Nemesis Dreadknight

• Librarian Aurellios: A barebones Librarian with no upgrades. Keeps the 4+ FNP against psychic weapons, but not the psychic power that deals MWs. As such, you don't necessarily need him to join a pack of Terminators for any major benefit.
• Strike Squad: Equipped with a Psilencer for RoF but lacks their ability to keep objectives capped.
• Brotherhood Terminator Squad: Equipped with a Psycannon in case you're facing anything with high Toughness. Fortunately get to keep Hammerhand for [Lethal Hits], which can help Aurellios too if you' stick him with them.
• Nemesis Dreadknight: Comes with a Heavy Psycannon and Nemesis Greatsword. Save for the event where you're facing a team with a vehicle.

Enhancements

• Banishment Stone: Whenever Librarian Aurellios kills an enemy Character, you can gain 1 CP on a 2+.
• Dominating Aura: Librarian Aurellios gains OC 3. Only use if you're needing to cap with the Terminators.

Secondary Objectives

• Champion of Titan: 6 VP each time Librarian Aurellios kills an enemy Character. Basic goal.
• No Escape: 10 VP if you cap both the objective closest to your table edge and the one closest to your opponent's table edge.

Stratagems

• Emergency Teleport (2 CP): Lets one Infantry unit use Teleport Assault despite being engaged in melee.
• Unyielding to the Last (1 CP): Lets your Infantry to fight on after dying on a 4+.
• Warded Plate (1 CP): When one Infantry unit is attacked, the enemy takes -1 to wound if the attack's Strength exceeds the squad's Toughness.

Wargear

Highlighting changes from 9th to 10th editions in parenthesis. Blue means improvement and Orange means degradation. Remember a +AP is a degradation.

Note: The removal of the Psychic Phase has been awkward for the Grey Knights, especially with the addition of the [Psychic] tag. Units that previously had a MW Shrug against Psychic Spells now have a FNP against all [Psychic] attacks, which is all your non-storm bolter weapons.

Factions/Units to watch out for include

• Black Templars: Can take a vow to receive a 4++ invuln and Anti-Psyker 4+
• Sisters of Silence: have a 3+++ against psychic weapons.
• Librarians: Can provide a 4+++ against psychic weapons to their unit.
• Primaris Psykers: Provide a 4+++ against psychic weapons.
• Thousand Sons: Psychic Dominion stratagem gives a 4+++ against psychic weapons and makes your psychic weapons [Hazardous].

Melee Weapons

• Nemesis Force Weapon: Psychic S6 AP-2 D2.

Ranged Weapons

• Storm Bolter: [Rapid Fire 2] 24" A2 BS3+ S4 AP-0 D1.
• Incinerator: 12" Ad6 BS(Torrent) S6 AP-1(Ignores Cover) D1.
  • Heavy Incinerator: 18" A2d6 BS(Torrent) S6 AP-1(Ignores Cover) D1. This weapon outperforms the Gatling Psilencer against Sv3+ or better.
• Psilencer: [Psychic] 24" A6 BS3+(Sustained Hits 1) S5 (+1) AP0 (-1) D1.
  • Gatling Psilencer: [Psychic] 24" A12 BS3+(Sustained Hits 1) S6 (+1) AP0 (-1) D1. Outperforms the Heavy Incinerator against Sv4+ or worse, or against invulns.
• Psycannon: [Psychic] 24" A3 BS3+ S8 (+1) AP-1 D2.
  • Heavy Psycannon: [Psychic] 24" A6 BS3+ S10 (+2) AP-1 (-1) D3 (+1). This weapon outperforms the other Dreadknight weapons against most targets. Against W2 it will be 8 A*BS*D and hence outperform the Incinerator against everything while outperforming the Psilencer against Sv4+ or better, while against W1 you need some specific Toughnesses for it to be your best gun.

Unit Analysis

Characters

By led unit:

• Brotherhood Terminator Squad/Paladin Squad: Brother-Captain, Brotherhood Chaplain, Brotherhood Librarian, Grand Master, Kaldor Draigo, Arvann Stern, Aldrik Voldus
• Purgation Squad: Brotherhood Champion
• Purifier Squad: Castellan Crowe
• Servitors: Brotherhood Techmarine
• Strike Squad: Brotherhood Champion, Brotherhood Techmarine

• Brother-Captain: A beefed-up Paladin. His led unit gains [Sustained Hits 1] on their psychic weapons - a rule that has no effect on Psilencers due to the restrictions on stacking bonuses. He also has another buff that lets him re-roll to wound his own gun - Something far more reliable for a buff.
• Brotherhood Champion: One of only two power-armoured heroes in the chapter and the only one who wants to be in a fight, particularly with enemy characters thanks to using [Precison]. Fortunately, he's made to be that guy by giving everyone including himself Fights First and re-rolls to hit and wound enemy characters.
• Brotherhood Chaplain: Gives his unit gains +1 to melee wound rolls like any Chaplain but lacks a Combi-Weapon option...not like it changes much for him. He does however add a 6" bubble that makes enemies take -1 to battle-shock tests.
• Brotherhood Librarian: Like the Codex-compliant Terminator Librarian, putting him in a squad gives them a 4+ FNP against psychic weapons. He also gets an old-school psychic power that deals a devastating d6 MWs to himself on a 1, 2d3 MWs to an enemy 18" on a 2+ and 2d6 MWs on a 6. This at least gives him a means to damage anything beyond his squad's power.
• Brotherhood Techmarine: A purely supportive version of the codex-compliant techie with a built-in Servo-Harness. While he still gets Lone Operative while being near Vehicles, his ability to fix a vehicle and give them a +1 to hit do not necessarily have to be the same target so you can fix one while buffing another.
• Grand Master: The closest you get to a Captain. His squad can ignore modifiers to characteristics, tests, and rolls, except for saving throws, and they can be targeted by any strat for 0 CP once per game even if the strat has already been used this turn.
• Grand Master in Nemesis Dreadknight: While a bit buffed at T8 Sv2+/4++ W13, it's still not amazing defensively when compared to things like Dreads. Fortunately, the fact that any stratagem used on him will only cost 1 CP regardless of cost means that many defensive tricks will remain affordable.
  • His offensive power has Surge of Wrath to give one GMND each turn the ability to re-roll all hits, wounds, and damage rolls against Vehicles and Monsters in melee. This does quite a bit, as both the Nemesis Daemon Greathammer and Nemesis Greatsword have d6s in their damage stats, which can get frustrating since these weapons are made for killing just those sorts of enemies.
  • Gun breakdown (now BS 3+, you want the Heavy Incinerator and Heavy Psycannon to go hunting for harder targets):
    • Gatling Psilencer: 10 total A*BS*D resolving at 24" S6 AP 0 D1.
    • Heavy Incinerator: 7 total A*BS*D resolving at 18" S6 AP-1 D1 with ignores cover makes this weapon outperform the Psilencer against Sv3+ or better.
    • Heavy Psycannon: 12 total A*BS*D resolving at 24" S10 AP-1 D3 makes this weapon outperform both of the others against most targets. Against W2 it will be 8 A*BS*D and hence outperform the Incinerator against everything while outperforming the Psilencer against Sv4+ or better, while against W1 you need some specific Toughnesses for it to be your best gun.

Epic Heroes

• Grand Master Voldus: Led unit has -1 to be hit.
• Castellan Crowe: Led unit's Purifying Flames get +1A.
• Kaldor Draigo: Led unit has a 4+++ against mortal wounds and 1/battle when charging out of Deep Strike, +3 to the charge roll (meaning you need a 6 to succeed, base odds 72.22%).
• Brother-Captain Stern: His led unit's critical melee wounds deal +1MW.

Battleline

A note on leaders: most of your HQs are in Terminator armor, and so can only be attached to Terminator/Paladin squads.

• Strike Squad: Now rocking Artificer-tier armor, being 2+ Power Armor marines that can keep objectives secured even after fucking off it.
  • The only leaders you can attach to these guys are the Techmarine and the Champion. The Champion gives them Fight First, but the Techmarine does nothing for them.
  • As Teleport Assault has a unit limit, another useful thing is Scout 6", letting Knights that can't be in the teleportarium get a head start in their rhinos.
• Terminator Squad: These guys have received an indirect buff since they are the only unit compatible with most of your Leader, and as a bodyguard retinue, they do very well: Narthecium lets them bring back a body every turn, the Banner gives them OC3, and Hammerhand gives them Lethal Hits in melee on the charge.
  • Consider having them led by Draigo, who lets them add +3 to the charge after deepstriking.

Infantry

• Interceptor Squad: M12 with fly and they can move 6" after shooting, but then they can't charge. That would be absolutely incredibly if the unit weren't chock full of storm bolters.
  • Special Weapons: 1/5, and you lose your melee weapon when you swap.
• Purifier Squad: Purifiers are the middle-ground between Strike Squads and Purgation Squads, packing quite a bit of Psychic Dakka: Purifying Flame has been relegated to an 18" A1 BS3+ S4(Anti-Infantry 2+) AP-1(Ignores Cover) D1 gun on each model, but if they are being led by Castellan Crowe (the only guy who can lead them), that jumps to A2. Their psychic power grants them +1 to hit when they are below Starting Strength and +1 to wound (which does nothing for their Purifying Flame against what the gun is intended for, of course) when below Half Strength.
  • Special Weapons: 2/5, and you lose your melee weapon when you swap.
• Paladin Squad: Very nearly basic Terminators, the differences are detailed below.
  • OC -1 (1 base instead of 2, before the banner, 2 instead of 3 after banner).
  • Loses Lethal Hits on the charge, but melee attacks are at WS2+, not WS3+.
  • -1 to be wounded from attacks whose S exceeds the T of this unit, so S6+. On the other hand, no access to Narthecium.
  • 3 special weapons per squad rather than 1+Narthecium. Note that just as on the basic Terminator squad, you keep your melee weapons when you pick up a special weapon. This means a Brother-Captain prefers Psycannon Paladins to Terminators.
• Purgation Squad: The heavy gunners of the knights remain pretty effective at what they do and little else. Had their survivability buffed with an upgrade to 2+. Psycannons give you something to easily knock down MEQs and dent monsters at A3 BS3+ S8 AP-1 D2, Psilencers are for mowing down hordes (A6 BS3+(sustained hits 1) S5 AP0 D1), and Incinerators are heavy flamers with +1S.
  • Due to the great culling of psychic powers, Astral Aim was made a bit different. Now it provides all guns Indirect Fire if at least one other GK Psyker unit can draw LoS to the enemy. This, aside from Overwatch, is the only reason to take Incinerators over Psilencers, because 5 average hits at S5 AP0 is better than 3.5 average hits at S6 AP-1 against the hordes you want both guns against, and the Incinerator's TORRENT and IGNORES COVER both don't care about Indirect penalties.
  • Can only be led by a Brotherhood Champion, who has no synergy with them as he's very focused on melee.
  • Special Weapons: 4/X (i.e. taking another 5 bodies gets you no additional weapons), and you lose your melee weapon when you swap.
• Servitors: Four walking meatshields for your Techmarines with T4 4+/6++. That said, they need that techie to keep them at their best with a bonus to WS and BS. Hell, there's no reason (aside from points and losing Lone Operative) not to take them as they can join alongside another retinue for the Techmarine, allowing you to strap some servo-arms and heavy weapons onto a squad that'd need it. Don't feel guilty about losing them either, as they're all OC0 and thus don't really care about battle-shock.
  • RAW, they become part of the Bodyguard unit; this also means that they are affected by the Purgation Squad's Astral Aim

Vehicles

• Land Raider: The return of the Assault Ramps means that this makes melee squads of Paladins very strong. This alongside the heightened Toughness of these beasts make them a very easy grab.

<tabs> <tab name="Godhammer/Classic"> Of course, its "unique" Godhammer lascannons don't have to deal with the return of Twin-Linked and just get 2 shots base, same as your Ballistus lascannons. Aside from that, it comes with a twin heavy bolter to take on anything smaller, with the additional option of a storm bolter and multi-melta depending on what you're up against. </tab> <tab name="Crusader"> Comes with two hurricane bolters, thankfully Twin-Linked so you can dump dozens of dice on an enemy in conjunction with the twin assault cannon. Transport Capacity: 16.

• The main reason you're grabbing this is because is the expanded storage. 16 slots, however, gives you 8 spaces for terminators/gravis or 5 centurions. If you're using it for Deathwing, it'll give some room for more terminators alongside the leader. It and the Redeemer also get the Grenades keyword for good measure.

</tab> <tab name="Redeemer"> Also comes with a twin assault cannon, with the sponsons being flamestorm cannons for super-sized heavy flamers to burn through MEQ. 14 spaces gives you just enough space for 7 terminators. Issue here is that you don't really have any way to make use of this since you can't attach multiple heroes to a squad. </tab> <tab name="Banisher (IA)"> Equipped with heavy incinerators for sponsons and a twin psycannon for something more akin to anti-MEQ. Seeing as this is costed the same as a Crusader, this makes the Banisher the better alternative to the Redeemer. </tab> </tabs>

Dedicated Transports

• Razorback:

• Rhino: The dedicated transport for your basic Strike Squad.

Walkers

• Nemesis Dreadknight: Not quite an equivalent to legit monsters, even with a 2+/4++ and 13 wounds - the damage track doesn't help either. However, they've got a hefty buff of being able to shoot and charge after advancing or falling back. This means that these baby carriers will always be fighting with anything you fire. While they're no longer as reliable at fighting monsters and tanks, you'll never spend a turn without doing something to make fighting them easier.
• Venerable Dreadnought: Blood Angles filed a lawsuit on exclusivity on psychic dreadnoughts. You don't even keep or get flying/Deep Strike shenanigans. What you do get is a walker with a re-roll 1s to hit and wound aura, which is rarer in this edition. This is the guy who will be baby-sitting your Strike Squads.

Aircraft

• Stormhawk Interceptor:
• Stormtalon Gunship:
• Stormraven Gunship:

• Thunderhawk^IA:

<tabs> <tab name="10th">

Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (10th Edition)

General Tactics	General Weapons Terrain
Imperium	Space Marines (Black Templars, Blood Angels, Dark Angels, Deathwatch, Space Wolves) Grey Knights
	Adeptus Mechanicus Adeptus Titanicus Imperial Knights Imperial Guard Sisters of Battle
	Adeptus Custodes & Sisters of Silence Imperial Agents (Inquisition, Rogue Traders, etc.)
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines (Death Guard Thousand Sons World Eaters)
	Chaos Daemons Chaos Knights Chaos Titans
Eldar	Eldar (Craftworlds, Corsairs, Harlequins, Ynnari) Dark Eldar
Necrons	Necrons
Orks	Orks
Tau	Tau
Tyranids	Tyranids Genestealer Cults
Votann	Leagues of Votann

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Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (9th Edition)

General Tactics	General Movement Psychic Fortifications Tactical Terrain Weapons Apocalypse
Imperium	Space Marines (Blood Angels Dark Angels Deathwatch Space Wolves) Grey Knights
	Adeptus Mechanicus Adeptus Titanicus Imperial Knights Imperial Guard Sisters of Battle
	Adeptus Custodes & Sisters of Silence Inquisition Officio Assassinorum Rogue Traders
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines (Death Guard Thousand Sons World Eaters)
	Chaos Daemons Chaos Knights Renegades and Heretics
Eldar	Craftworld Eldar Dark Eldar Harlequins Ynnari
Necrons	Necrons
Orks	Orks
Tau	Tau
Tyranids	Tyranids Genestealer Cults
Votann	Leagues of Votann

</tab>

<tab name="8th">

Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (8th Edition)

General Tactics	General Movement Psychic Fortifications Apocalypse
Imperium	Space Marines Blood Angels Dark Angels Deathwatch Grey Knights Space Wolves
	Talons of the Emperor (Custodes and Sisters of Silence) Adeptus Mechanicus
	Adeptus Ministorum (Sisters of Battle and minor factions) Adeptus Titanicus
	Imperial Knights Imperial Guard Inquisition Officio Assassinorum
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines (Death Guard Thousand Sons)
	Chaos Daemons Chaos Knights Renegades and Heretics
Eldar	Eldar Dark Eldar Harlequins
Necrons	Necrons
Orks	Orks
Tau	Tau
Tyranids	Tyranids Genestealer Cults

</tab>

<tab name="7th">

Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (7th Edition)

General Tactics	General Movement Psychic Fortifications
Imperium	Space Marines (Siege Assault Vanguard) Blood Angels Dark Angels Deathwatch Grey Knights Space Wolves
	Adeptus Custodes Cult Mechanicus Skitarii Adeptus Sororitas
	Imperial Knights Inquisition Officio Assassinorum
	Imperial Guard (Armoured Battlegroup Death Korps of Krieg Assault Brigade Death Korps of Krieg Siege Regiment Elysian Drop Troops D-99)
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines Khorne Daemonkin Chaos Daemons Renegades and Heretics
Eldar	Eldar Dark Eldar Harlequins Corsairs
Necrons	Necrons
Orks	Orks Ork Dred Mob
Tau	Tau
Tyranids	Tyranids Genestealer Cults

</tab>

<tab name="6th">

Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (6th Edition)

General Tactics	General Movement Psychic Fortifications
Imperium	Space Marines Blood Angels Dark Angels Grey Knights Space Wolves
	Adeptus Sororitas Inquisition
	Imperial Guard (Armoured Battlegroup Death Korps of Krieg Assault Brigade Death Korps of Krieg Siege Regiment Elysian Drop Troops) Militarum Tempestus
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines Chaos Daemons Renegades and Heretics
Eldar	Eldar Dark Eldar Corsairs
Necrons	Necrons
Orks	Orks Ork Dred Mob
Tau	Tau
Tyranids	Tyranids

</tab>

<tab name="All">

Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (All)

General Tactics	General (8th) Movement (8th 7th) Psychic (8th 7th 2nd) Fortifications (8th 7th) Tactical Terrain Apocalypse (8th)
Imperium (8th)	Space Marines (8th 7th 6th 5th 4th 3rd) Blood Angels (8th 7th) Dark Angels (8th 7th) Deathwatch (8th 7th) Grey Knights (8th 7th 6th 5th 3rd, AKA Daemonhunters) Space Wolves (8th 7th 6th 5th)
	Talons of the Emperor (Custodes and Sisters of Silence) (8th 7th) Adeptus Mechanicus (8th 7th) Adeptus Ministorum (Sisters of Battle and minor factions) (8th 7th 6th 3rd, AKA Witch Hunters) Adeptus Titanicus (8th)
	Imperial Knights (8th 7th) Imperial Guard (8th 7th 6th 5th 3rd) Inquisition (8th 7th 6th) Officio Assassinorum (8th 7th)
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines (8th 7th 6th 5th) Death Guard (8th) Khorne Daemonkin - 7th Edition Thousand Sons (8th) Chaos Daemons (8th 7th) Chaos Knights (8th) Renegades and Heretics (8th 7th 6th)
Eldar	Eldar (8th 7th 6th 5th) Dark Eldar (8th 7th 6th 5th 3rd Revised) Harlequins (8th 7th)
Necrons	Necrons (8th 7th 6th 5th 4th)
Orks	Orks (8th 7th 6th 5th 3rd) Ork Dred Mob - 7th edition (6th 5th) Ork Kult of Speed - 3rd edition Feral Orks - 3rd edition
Tau	Tau (8th 7th 6th 5th)
Tyranids	Tyranids (8th 7th 6th 5th) Genestealer Cults (8th 7th)

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