Grey Knights
 | This article or section is about something oldschool - and awesome. Make sure your rose-tinted glasses are on nice and tight, and prepare for a lovely walk down nostalgia lane. |
| Grey Knights | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
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| Battle Cry | "We Are the Hammer!" | |
| Number | 666 | |
| Founding | Second Founding (sort of) | |
| Successors of | None | |
| Successor Chapters | Exorcists (not official) | |
| Chapter Master | Kaldor Draigo | |
| Primarch | The Emperor (its unconfirmed whether it is true however) | |
| Homeworld | Titan | |
| Strength | ~1000 | |
| Specialty | Killing Daemons, being better than you | |
| Allegiance | Imperium | |
| Colours | Unpainted (hence, "grey") | |
The Grey Knights are a bunch of RAGE-inducing Mary Sues fucking badass SPESS MEHREENS that also, like their brethren, do it for the EMPRAH. The Grey Knights are the legendary 666th Spess Mahreen chapter made by the Emprah (despite the fact that there were only 20 Space Marine Legions before their creation). Most likely a poor attempt at symbolism by our spiritual liege.
Overview
They're all (POSSIBLY. POOOOSSSSSIBLY. Not confirmed.) made with the Gene-seed of the Emperor himself, making them sort of like mini-primarchs (that sound you hear right now is me crying). This, of course, brings up the question of why the Emperor didn't do this in the first place, but... then Games Workshop wouldn't have a story, would they? The Grey Knights work under the Ordo Malleus and specialize in killing anything daemonic, so they're typically called in to deal with giant greater daemons of death or Chaos Primarchs themselves, and boy can they ruin any daemon's day.
People outside the Ordo Malleus and high-lords of Terra do not know much about the Grey Knights, as a containment measure to protect any of the Grey Knights' secret equipment and rituals from chaos forces, ensuring they'll always have the upper hand in a fight. Because their base of operations and anything that happens within their Chapter are never discussed outside the Ordo or by the High-lords though as the First war of Armageddon, Dawn of War: Dark Crusade, and Dawn of War: Soulstorm show, they'll work with other Chapters if the Ordo Malleus or one of their higher-ups decides that their presence is needed or if their presence is requested by the overall commander of Space Marine operations.
They don't necessarily have to fight Daemons and will readily deal with more mundane things like witches, mutants, and heretics; these would normally be left to the Ordo Hereticus and their chamber militant the Sisters of Battle as well as their inquisitorial stormtroopers. Grey Knights also occasionally fight Xenos which would normally be left to the Ordo Xenos and their chamber militant the Deathwatch which is composed of the hardest non-grey knight space marines around as well as the usual inquisitorial stormtroopers. Again, this is rare as the Grey Knights and their Ordo Malleus Inquisitorial Stormtrooper allies will typically feel that this is a waste of their talent.
All of this changed when Xeno Warp entities like the Avatars of Khaela Mensha Khaine and Enslavers appear or when said heretics, mutants, and witches bring out Daemons or some combination of the above; this tends to end up causing two or if they're really unlucky, all three branches of the inquisition to descend down upon the poor sap. Fighting Inquisitorial Stormtroopers from all three branches, the Sisters of Battle, the Deathwatch, and the Grey Knights all at once is a challenge that most sapient entities would much rather slowly gnaw all of their legs off than face.
"The Daemonic leads to two crimes; You turn away from the path of righteousness. And, you abandon the Emperor as the object of your devotion. For the first, death is merely a just retribution. The second is a heresy so terrible that no punishment can be sufficient. Yet the search for an appropriate penalty continues, and it shall be found." ~~ Codex: Daemonhunters 3rd Ed
Grey Knights are also the most elite of the Space Marines and are trained in the most ball-crushingly hard process that even veteran space marines consider "hard". Unlike other marine chapters however, they're all Psykers and only induct Psykers as recruits from the inquisitorial "Black Ships", which collect Psykers throughout the Imperium for training. They're also the most pure of the Space Marine chapters, every last one of them thinks that Chaos is fucktarded and not a single Knight has ever succumbed to Chaotic influences. Their name is supposed to reflect their purity, though we'll ignore that grey isn't a color that people think of when it comes to purity and that their armour is "silver," WH40K has lots of things that make lots less sense than that. Even a basic Grey Knight is capable of one shotting a lesser daemon with his force halberd in fluff terms, and a typical nameless Greater Daemon or Daemon prince can be sent shrieking back into the warp with one swing from a Grey Knight Grand Master. But for really big Daemonic threats like the Daemon Primarch Angron and An'ggrath, lots of Grey Knights will be needed to bring down the gribbly warp monster. Unless you are Kaldor Draigo, who is actually Sly Marbo in terminator armour. Seriously, he carves names into Daemon Primarch's hearts, beats Bloodthirsters barehanded and makes swords out of them. In other words, he's an even bigger and more annoying Mary Sue than Calgar; God...Motherfucking...Dammit...Ward. He's Sly Fucking Marbo. Sly FUCKING Marbo doesn't need to beat a demon into his own personel weapon (though he could if he wanted) because Hes not a pussy that NEEDS ONE.
They are given the absolute best equipment the Imperium can give, their basic troopers are nearly as well armed as most chapter's terminators, coming with a stormbolter and a force weapon vs a termie's storm bolter and power weapon and they have access to the monstrously powerful Psycannon. However, they always prefer fighting at close combat where they can use their force weapons.
Table-top wise, Grey Knights are the optimum MOST OP commando army; you're normally outnumbered but you are capable of tearing shit up if you lead your troops correctly can read, or actually, maybe not even.... In an average 1,000 point match, you'll have 20 models and a land raider. But it's okay, because they kick ass. Plus all of their models subscribe to the Rule of Cool, they're more awesomesauce than regular marines and all their basic weapons are fuckawesome and their units all look really damned cool. Them's fighting words.
Though they are individually more powerful than the Deathwatch of the Ordo Xenos and are both more individually powerful and experienced than the Sisters of Battle of the Ordo Hereticus, they lack the experience and versatility of the Deathwatch who probably also outnumber them somewhat, and are vastly outnumbered by the Sisters of Battle, which keeps a balance of power between the three orders of the inquisition.
Quotes from Brother-Captain Stern
They also make fanatical faith in the God-Emprah cool:
"We are warriors of the Grey Knights, armored in Faith, shielded by Devotion, and armed with Purity of Purpose. But greater even than these, we carry the light of the divine Emperor of Man into the dark places to purge the daemonic wherever it may be found."
"There is nothing in the arcane and blasphemous arsenal of the forces of Chaos that can compare to faith. With the power of faith, our weapons become shining instruments of deliverance that can cleave the mightiest daemon in twain. With the power of faith, our minds appear as slivers of pure agony to the daemon, driving into the wretched forms of those who would dare stand before us. With the power of faith, our words become commands that cause the daemon to cower and cringe in terror. I could meet my enemies unarmed without a shred of fear in my chest, for I know that the Emperor watches over me and guides my hand. So let them come. We shall show them what the power of faith can do."
Organization
Since they exist outside the normal structure of the Adeptus Astartes, the Grey Knights have an organization similar yet distinctly different from Codex Chapters. They are as follows:
- Supreme Grand Master: The Chapter Master of the Grey Knights, elected by the eight Grand Masters unanimously. Kaldor Draigo serves as the current Supreme Grand Master. While he can override any current Grand Master command or mission, he normally only does this if a Conclave Diabolus (the 101 daemons on their most wanted list) or a Deamon Primarch shows up.
- Grand Master: The leader of a Grey Knights Brotherhood, this Grey Knight has seen centuries if not millennia of combat. There are only eight in total, in remembrance of the eight Space Marines Malcador the Sigillite recruited for the task. While they also control the brotherhood fleet, manage recruits ect, they normaly just give these task to a Surf so they can go kill daemons.
- Brother-Captain: A captain of a Grey Knights Terminator Squad. Similar to the old Legion Astartes rank where Captains could also be squad commanders, except for the fact that they are always referred to as Brother-Captain. Grey Knight Brother-Captains can command larger groups the way a captain in a typical Codex Chapter would (this happened at the First Battle of Armageddon, for example), but the Knights only assemble in such numbers in response to the direst of threats, so most of the time they're left to run just a squad, albeit an elite one.
- Brotherhood Champion: Similar to a Company Champion, the Brotherhood Champion has renounced all forms of combat save for the sword. Given that all Grey Knights are psykers wielding Nemesis-force weapons, this means that a Brotherhood Champion will be charging a daemon with a flaming sword, evening the odds a little. Admittedly one of the cooler (in fluff) units, though on tabletop they're little more than one-trick ponies.
- Justicar: Similar in function to a Sergeant, a Justicar leads squads in battle, answering immediately to a Brother-Captain. The major difference between a Sergeant and a Justicar is that a Justicar may wear personal heraldry.
- Purifier: Purifiers are battle-brothers who are especially pure of spirit, possessing high psychic ability that can allow them to wreath themselves in holy flame that will burn anything Chaos tainted while leaving the Purifier untouched. So basically yo dawg we heard you like warriors of purity so we put extra purity in your extra purity so you can be extra pure while you're extra pure!
- Paladin: Paladins are a special group like the Purifiers, but whereas the Purifiers focus on spiritual purity, the Paladins are much more martial, serving as bodyguards to the Grand Masters. Membership is acquired when an Aspirant completes eight separate quests establishing his character and nobility.
- Prognosticar: Think, Space Marine Farseers.
Suddenly Fail
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 | This article or section involves Matthew Ward, Spiritual Liege, who is universally-reviled on /tg/. Because this article or section covers Ward's copious amounts of derp and rage, fans of the 40K series are advised that if they proceed onward, they will see fluff and crunch violation of a level rarely seen. |
When the Grey Knights Codex update was announced, there was considerable discussion amongst /tg/; finally, an army that needed it was going to get an update. Anticipation turned to balls-out horror, however, when it was discovered that Matthew "Spiritual Liege" Ward was going to do the codex. Matt was notorious for fucking up the fluff of the Blood Angels (turning them into necrophiliacs) and Space Smurfs (turning them into SECOND TO TEH EMPRAH marines, simultaneously infuriating those who actually liked the Ultramarines fluff in which they took their lumps but fought on (I.E. the Manly route) and those who already disliked Ultramarines. Virtually all the fluff in the 5th Edition Space Marine codex was for the Ultramarines, with especially strong emphasis placed on shafting any army who told Rawbutt Girlyman to go fuck himself, such as the Raven Guard and Black Templars).
Considering that Matt had placed so much ascended fanboy wankery on the Ultramarines, many, especially on /tg/, were wondering how, exactly, he was intending to handle the fluff of the Grey Knights, who were trained to be the best of the best. The face-palm-worthy answer came in the form of leaked information regarding the Codex:
He would handle it exactly like the giant faggot that he is.
Gray Knights now roam around carving their names in the daemon hearts of daemon primarchs - you know, the ones that single-handedly destroyed empires and have ascended to daemonhood. That any man would be capable of this, given that the Warp is the very essence of the Daemonic and ergo their numbers are limitless and their powers inviolate and also is a realm that is in itself anathema to the laws of physical existence hence why the fucking ships have to use Geller Fields so they don't un-exist by entering the Warp, and the 10+ years of canon regarding just that was completely disregarded - because Matt Ward said so. So they have one guy (who is such a bit of lunacy that 1d4chan has given him his own article) running around the warp, killing Slaanesh's chosen handmaidens, burning down the gardens of Nurgle, and though it wasn't expressly stated in his fluff article, heavily implies figuring out Tzeentch's Infinite Labyrinth. True to all Matt Ward fluff, how Draigo managed to escape going insane from warp exposure, become Slaanesh's buttsex-slave after setting eyes on She who thirsts, being popped like a Zit by Khorne, not catching space daemon AIDS from being in the plaguefather and Mortarion's presence (let alone carving anything on his heart), or simply being drowned in bodies that make his armor/invulnerable saves irrelevant (the usual way to deal with Grey Knights on the tabletop) is never explained. This is Ward we're talking about, and he shows as much grace as black Irish lepers when handling fluff. Who knows, maybe Ward decided this guy is the Grey Knight's Primarch. At least that might make some sense...a primarch version of a living saint... mmmmm, why didn't Emps do that to begin with!?
Not content to rape canon with just one codex entry, he then made it so that Daemonhosts could be taken by a Grey Knights army. For the uninitiated, this was, again, another slap in the face of 10+ years of canon, since in literally every fucking work put out by Games Workshop, has had them view Daemonhosts as the darkest form of Heresy and dealing with those that harbor them the same way they deal with anything daemonic. Not content to leave well enough alone, they can now work with radical Inquisitors, who, again, now harbor the daemonic in the form of Daemonblades.
Then he gave most of the Sisters of Battle special characters to the Grey Knights, such as Lord Krazypantsoff, since - y'know, that army hadn't been brutalized enough for Matt's taste. Which is why he then included the Bloodtide. A Basilicae of the Sisters accidentally release a Bloodthirster of Khorne. Some of the sisters turned bad, some stayed pure, most ended up deprived of blood and skulls. (Part of this is based off a book/movie. Google Bloodtide.) The Grey Knights pop in, see that some of the sisters are pure, and decide to murder them all and paint their armor and swords in their blood in order to better fight the demons. Apparently being turned into fancy armor coating is the new way to treat unpopular elements of the game, rather than tyranids. presumably thanks to the second greatest faggot in games workshop (or 3rd) (This is largely considered to be the most abhorrent fluff-rape ever, at least to most players), but we all know the only reason why they killed all the Bolter Bitches was because, no matter how awesome their armour is, no matter how great they are at fighting Chaos or no matter how Mary Sue they are, they will NEVER be good enough to become Ultramarines.
He then proceeded to give the Grey Knights an absolutely-ridiculous-looking (and widely mocked by /tg/) walker called a Dreadknight that counts as a monstrous creature, can do a huge personal teleport to get where it needs to be, and which basically is a Grey Knight Terminator hooked into a bigger armor suit - yes, it's every bit as insane and retarded (and broken) as it sounds. As one clever Ultramarines player, fed up with Matt Ward's shit, put it:
"Yo dawg, we heard you like powered armor so we put powered armor in your powered armor so you can go to war while you go to war" [1]
Quite. (Note that Ultramarines now have their own version of the Dreadknight which is even derpier)
Inexplicably, despite the fact that you could snipe the Grey Knight out of the Dreadknight, since apparently armoring the head is for losers, the rules don't display this. Exactly why Ward thinks that bullets are somehow less damaging against the Knight's head when it's put in a suit of armor that mostly covers its body and limbs is a mystery. (Although the codex does say something about there being an invisible shield of ridiculous strength protecting the pilot, without any regard to what kind of implications Super-Strength Force Fields have, simply because Matt Ward wanted to make the DreadKnight look like the Power Loader from Aliens) What he really got from it was a baby carrier attached to a chicken that got beaten by an ugly stick.
Throw in a ton of extra cheese, a commander that out-Creed's Creed (it can Scout more units than Creed can with Tactical Genius) by a sizable margin, throw in a ton of retarded violations of fluff like the aforementioned, and several other bits of flaming stupid (such as the oversight which allows players to take entire armies of Jokaero, which, depending on who you are, could be a bad thing or a funny thing), and you have the new Grey Knights Codex in a nutshell.
The God-Emperor of Mankind wept tears of sorrow at the ruination of his favored sons. And at the same time, tears of rage at the homosexual Ultrasmurf fanboy whom he wishes no less than his eternal torture at the hands of the Inquisition.
Seriously, if any of you had watched the Ultramarines:The Movie, losing an entire squad, a Brother-Captain, an Apothecary, AND a Chaplain to 1 (ONE/UNO/Barely Worth Inquisitorial Notice) lowly daemon prince who had no weapons and could barely cast magic... would be an incomprehensible facepalm to the Grey Knights.
Ward turned the Grey Knights, really mysterious and bad-ass demon hunters, and just made it clear throughout the codex that their one feature is that they are "better" than everyone else. Just like he always does. No, seriously, that is ALL HE DOES. He just stamps "better" over whatever faction tickles his elitism fetishes just right, no explanation whatsoever. This editor has only ONE published book to his name and even he can pretty much come to the mind-numbingly safe conclusion that Matt Ward is to Warhammer 40,000 what Stephanie Meyer is to vampires and werewolves; devoid of context, devoid of feel, devoid of emotion, devoid of inspiration... devoid. Just. Plain. Devoid.
Pretty much the only redeeming quality of the book is that it allows the use of viable Inquisitorial-henchmen-only armies. With liberal use of the aforementioned space monkeys, it is now possible to make a fairly fluffy and effective counts-as Mechanicus force. Or at the very least, field your Dark Heresy group on the tabletop.
Of course, in the interim, we still have Khornate Knights to facepalm over.
/tg/'s General Reaction
Bud Light Presents: Real Men of Genius
>Real Men of Genius!
Today we salute you, Mr. Grey Knights Codex Thread Spammer.
>Mr. Grey Knights Codex Thread Spammer!
Most trolls feign stupidity just long enough to piss somebody off. You have the tenacity to act like an idiot for weeks at a time.
>Why's it look like a baby?
Three times an hour, twelve hours a day, you create a thread asking the questions that were answered fifteen minutes after the Codex was leaked.
>I heard they can take daemonhosts!
Mod warning sticky? Those are for pussies.
>And WHYYY aren't there any girl Knights?!
You've spent hours and days devoting yourself to ensure that people will never stop talking about a Codex you have no intention of ever even playing.
>LOL Jokaero!
So crack open an ice-cold Bud Light, oh corpulent codex complainer, because without you we'd never forget that Kaldor Draigo is kinda like Samurai Jack.
>Mr. Grey Knights Codex Thread Spammer!
The Grey Knight's Super Secret Box
Deep within the core of Saturn's moon, Titan, which has been hidden in the Warp during the Horus Heresy, in the heart of the Grey Knights fortress lies a super secret box containing something so super secret that only Supreme Grand Master Kaldor Draigo knows what is inside and nobody else. is unknown what lies within the box, but it is believed that if it is opened that untold horrors would spill into the material world. But anything could be inside the box, even a piece of string, a secret compartment within the actual secret box that holds one of the deepest and darkest secret of the Imperium that's triggered by pulling said piece of string, or another box that contains another secret box. It might even contain an embarassing photo of the emprah from the Christmas party
Of course, we'll never know since the box will only be opened when "All is lost", ie: the 43rd millennium, when Tyranids finally eat Ultima Segmentum, the Eye of Terror eats Cadia, Creed works for Tzeentch, Abaddon finally does something competent and gets his arms back, Yarrick kills Ghazghkull, Macha gets laid, Indrick Boreale is resurrected to speak normally, and the Primarchs come back just in time for a threesome with 'Nids and Chaos to see who gets the Astronomican.
Basically, Matt Ward read The Sphere and thought he was being clever by putting a Pandora's Box reference in the codex, that or Ward just happened to watch the Super Secret Box episode of Spongebob Squarepants while doing the GK Codex and thought: "why the fuck not?", and threw it in for content's sake. It is also possible that the box contains the remains of Matt Ward himself, and at the moment these remains are released this horrid creature will resurrect, raping the last remaining bits of sanity and awesome left in an orgy of destruction not even all of Chaos itself can comprehend.
Tl;dr: I saw you with the box, what was in the booox? OH, WHAT'S IN THE BOOOOOX? WHAT'S IN THE FUCKING BOX?! And something tells us we're not going to like what's in the box, either (it's a plot device by Matt Ward, after all; your wife's head in the box would probably be better than whatever he has in mind. And given his sick twisted snuff fetish constantly displayed with the poor Sisters, it might just be that).
The Vets' Lament
Actually, Veteran daemonhunter players are the most vocal detractors of the new codex, being well-read on the old fluff themselves. It's because the Eldritch abomination ultimately made them hate their own armies, where once the Knights and their fluff were a source of great pride and manliness. Not to mention having to endure the nearly-constant whining of other 40k players and idiocy of the new Knight players who just jumped on the bandwagon because they thought the Knights looked like 'awesome paladins in space!' with their 'awesome new stats!' and their 'awesome new fluff!' and their 'awesome imba gear!' and their awesome awesome douchey shit reasons. While the players who already liked the knights way before they were considered kool, get fucking alienated.
It is now, however, to the daemonhunter veterans that the dedicated Grey Knight players take their pride from. Most vets don't give a puritan rat's ass at the copious bitch-whining and numb-dickery abound (besides, you think the Blood Angels and Space Wolves give a flying fuck what other people say?), the vets just shrug and play like they always do, while silently reminding themselves of the 25-points-per-Grey-Knight days when even just 1 win out of 7 defeats against 4th and the new 5th edTards, was already considered a great time. And, counting themselves lucky that they got an update at all unlike those poor Deathwatch bastards ... (even though every grudging victory now leaves them feeling a little emptier inside).
The new direction now for the experienced Malleus players is creating Grey Knight lists that give their opponents the advantage, and religiously denying some of the more effective weapons (2 psycannons in the entire list, max) and units (never picking heavy support even against imba Guard Tank SQUADRONS). And putting special inhibitions in their style of play (win the game using just one psychic power once the whole battle). It's not something we like doing (though most of us will tell you "We enjoy the challenge" or some bullshit), but it was done out of necessity, since...well, full grown men will revert to 5-year-olds when you force insta-kill their Hive Tyrant using a fast-attack Knight, the noisy-whiny result wasn't pretty...or conducive to friendly play. So, yea (we're not letting you win, we're just pulling our punches a bit making it easier for us to lose, and probably never fight at full strength ever again).
...Thank you for nothing, Matt Ward.
Rest assured though, these sad veterans of the long war are not alone; there are many Ultramarines fans who are likewise displaced by Ward's nonsense. The only solace we can take from this is that the displaced are far from alone and most assuredly not simply a minority. And, in all likelihood will be joined shortly by the distraught on-the-verge-of-suicide players of the Necrons. You have our sympathies, guys.
You guys have to realize that every time we read a "OH GOD