Inside Codex: Grey Knights

Okay, what do we have here?

First of all, the cover art is...well...it's just okay.  I doubt it will discourage anyone from picking it up, but I am underwhelmed.  The figure foreshortening is a little odd, causing the towering might of the Emperor's final creation to look a little like chibi SD Grey Knights, but that is just an opinion.   Moving on!

The interior is gorgeous. less for any uniqueness of layout as for the illustrations within.  The illustrators really knocked it out of the park, and I wonder why a color (or even black and white!) version of the illustration on pg. 20 wasn't used as the cover.

The book is literally packed with loads of new fluff (I sound like a GW staff member!) including a bit of an easter egg for anyone who remembers the Sensei from obscure 1st and 2nd edition material, and an equally impressive timeline of the Deeds of the Grey Knights.  Some more interesting bits are the open-ended mystery of the GK's founding members-useful if you've been paying attention to the Horus Heresy novel series-and the nod to Michael Moorcock's Elric.  Kaldor Draigo is also requisitely hyped as the ULTIMATE GREY KNIGHTOMGZORS...but somehow manages to be pretty inspiring fluff in the process.

     As for rules...I'm not going to get into an indepth analysis (that's material for another article) but some of the things that leap out at me immediately are psy-rounds on stormraven ammo for 20 points equals hilarious, Grandmaster plus Dreadknight spam equals Teleporting monstrous 4 wound force weapon weilding scoring units onto your objectives, and there's going to probably be a much better henchman spam list coming out of this book than a Grey Knights list. Coteaz plus infinite assasin-psyker-mystic-orangutan dudes? In chimeras? Scoring? Sign me up.

Grand Master Mordrak and Ghost Knights are INSANE.  Non-scattering, stealthed, self-replacing psychic Terminators guaranteed turn one with nemesis force weapons for the price of C:SM Termies?  That just adds insult to injury for us Marine players, as the basic Grey Knights are 40 points as well.  Why don't you just pee on me while you're at it. 

The basic Grey Knights army, consisting of clusters of various death stars (which is what this 'dex seems to want you to build), is going to have a hard time on first glance...maybe I'm missing something by not doing across the board points comparisons against C:SM, but this is seems to be a LOW model count army. Filling out minimum troops slots as cheaply as possible gets you 10 power armour dudes with nemesis force weapons and no upgrades for 200 points. Might be the way to go, as it seems like Terminator Spam isn't going to be spam at all.

In summary, Codex: Grey Knights is certainly filled with lots of surprising options.  I don't think that the Terminator heavy list is going to shake the metagame much, but watch out for that max Henchman list. Know thy enemy above all else, and if you don't purchase C:GK, definitely at least sit down with one.  One last bit of wishlisting: hopefully these costings reflect or hint at what Marine players can come to expect sometime in 2014.

-Dark Brotherhood