Get on the 6th Bandwagon - Talking Grey Knights

This article has success written all over it.  It will have Grey Knights.  It will have 6th edition.  It will have wild speculation.  All components at this moment for a successful 40k Blog post.  What I want to hit on are some thoughts about how changes in 6th edition can bring those obviously overpowered, unfair brutally destructive Grey Knights back into balance with the other codices.






Before considering how 6th can potentially even the field, the first thing to consider is: what are the strengths of GK?  Based on the Adepticon lists (Blood of Kittens Lists)

-Cheap scoring units in AV 12 vehicles (with Coteaz)
-Universally useful S7 shooting (psycannon saturation)
-Cheap, reliable S8 vehicle shooting (Psybolt Dreads)
-Flexible, powerful psychic powers

Other than the psycannon properties, all of these can at least be partially influenced by some slight tweaks to the 6th edition ruleset.  I think some of these changes are likely moving into the future and those changes might also alleviate some of the problems other codices have as well.  So let's start at the top while I speculate on some of the rumors!

-Cheap scoring units in AV 12 vehicles

It takes 5 Marines or 3 Naked Henchman to capture an objective!

The most effective GK lists featured cheap scoring Acolyte units inside of AV 12 Chimeras.  These scoring bodies come at the bargain price of 62 points a piece.  A feat that no other codex can replicate and that enables a large portion of the army to be devoted to expensive Elite/Heavy selections.  Rumor has it the Force Org will change to be more in line with fantasy - which is percentage based (Rumor Here) .  I think this is a good thing for all the books.  Elite armies will have less scoring bodies, armies with good, cheap troops will have more scoring bodies on the field (assuming Troops remain the only scoring units).  This also indirectly deals with psycannon saturation - more on that later.

-Universally useful S7 shooting (psycannon saturation)

Feed a Heavy Bolter HGH and you get this.  Hits 65 HR a season.

As a Slaanesh Daemon player I would love to see Rending get a bump, but I think that is unlikely and will only make the GK psycannon problem worse.  Being able to pump out 8 S7 rending shots from a standard unit at 24" is a bit brutal - these shots can deal with troops and AV of any value.  That said, it is not 'game breaking' as a signature unit given the army has no Melta.  What is brutal is being able to throw out 16 of these shots from a squad of Purifies.  These squads are expensive, but there is room in a GK army with the inexpensive troops.  The force org change helps deal with this by limiting the number of these expensive squads that can be taken and strike squads have no where near the value of a purifier squads for CC and Shooting.

Also note, this Force Org change would enable units with over saturated inexpensive Elite/Fast slots to fill out their force a bit more.  I am looking at you Tyranids!

-Cheap, reliable S8 vehicle shooting (Psybolt Dreads)

Adding to the abundance of GK shooting are the Missile Launcher wannabe dreads.  Once again pulling from the 'more like fantasy' rumors and the way deployment worked in 4th edition I think these guys can be mitigated by a change to initial deployment.  The deployment order used to start with Heavies (which these guys are) which means they would hit the field first and provide opportunities for a player to avoid them with vulnerable (later deployed) troop selections.  These dreads remain cheap, but every army is going to have strong selections.  Rumored changes to the damage table (multiple stuns will eventually wreck a vehicle) makes these now unsuppressable units a bit more vulnerable to shooting as well.  A change to cover would also help bring them in line - with cover rumored to go to 5+.

Further, as backfield shooting units any changes to the reserves and Deep Strike (or outflanking) rules could have a big impact.  Nothing concrete has emerged with respect to reserve modifications, but I expect to see the system reworked to make battles a bit more dynamic.  The ability to tie up these non-power weapon wielding units with some cheap 4+ save guys will really change the way they are used.

A modification of the psychic powers will also influence these guys which brings me to...

-Flexible, powerful psychic powers

I only have one power and I got a movie deal.

Grey Knights really raised the bar on psychic powers and they can transform already dangerous units to be absolutely deadly.  Sanctuary and Shrouding can be especially difficult to deal with while Daemons really fold to Dark Excommunication (luckily not taken often, but comes default on a Dreadknight).  The prevailing rumor appears to be that psychic powers are going to get an overhaul (I would actually love to see some more cataclysmic effects of a failed psychic test)   Again, there are no concrete rumors out for psychic powers but I expect to see some kind of generic psychic defense.  It would also be interesting to see if the Faith system for Sisters is in any way a precursor to a new psychic system that puts some resource constraints on the use of psychic powers - I am not sure that would be a good thing, but it would force some interesting tactical decisions.

That is it for now, I hope this both excites players a bit more for 6th edition and assuages their hearts that the tyrranical rule of GK might soon end.  Many of these changes would also influence Space Wolves but that is a story for a different article.