The Grey Knights are peerless daemon-hunters above all else, but another of their particular talents often flies under the radar – their ability to run rings around almost any other force in the galaxy. By combining an ironclad will with sanctified Aegis armour, Grey Knights can safely make short hops into the warp through localised portals called Gate of Infinity, and the upcoming Codex: Grey Knights is full of ways to use the resulting mastery over movement to the fullest.
The army rule stays broadly the same in the new Codex – besides a name change – with one key difference: units removed from the battlefield aren’t automatically returned in the following Reinforcements step, letting them remain in Strategic Reserves until you need them back in the action. For many units, this means they’ll be returning with the Deep Strike ability, and the ability to repeatedly flicker in and out of the battlefield is the focus of the new Brotherhood Strike Detachment.
The Detachment rule Fury of Titan is the core of this jump-in, jump-out strategy, giving useful re-rolls of 1 to Hit and Wound whenever a unit steps back into realspace. The Grey Knights are always looking to get stuck into combat though, and arriving 9” away from your opponent makes the resulting charge a gamble, so the Purity of Purpose Enhancement is a killer way to improve your chances.
DETACHMENT RULE
BROTHERHOOD STRIKE:
FURY OF TITAN
Erupting from whirling Warp gates with their Nemesis blades blazing, squads of Grey Knights cut a bloody path through their enemies before the foe even realise their peril.
Each time a unit from your army is set up using the Deep Strike ability, until the end of the turn, each time a model in that unit makes an attack, re-roll a Hit roll of 1 and re-roll
a Wound roll of 1.
ENHANCEMENT
PURITY OF PURPOSE
This warriors single-minded devotion to duty is exemplary, driving them into the fiercest fires of battle with no thought of hesitation.
GREY KNIGHTS model only. Each time the bearer's unit is set up using the Deep Strike ability, until the end of the turn, you can re-roll Charge rolls made for the bearer's unit.
Now, there’s nothing worse than having your perfidious prey Fall Back from combat so their friends can shoot your stranded warriors to pieces, and the Knights of Titan have been around the block too many times to let that happen. Duty Unending sends them right back into Strategic Reserves – possibly the first time a jump into the warp has been the safety option – and if they end up getting stuck in a fight that isn’t going their way, Expeditious Exit lets them bypass normal restrictions and slip right out of combat.
DUTY UNENDING
BROTHERHOOD STRIKE - STRATEGIC PLOY STRATAGEM
There are always more threats than the templars of Titan can attend to at once, They must strike swiftly before redeploying to the following critical combat.
WHEN: Your opponent's Movement phase, just after an enemy unit within Engagement Range of one or more GREY KNIGHTS units from your army Falls Back.
TARGET: One of those GREY KNIGHTS units that is not within Engagement Range of one or more enemy units.
EFFECT: If your unit has the Deep Strike ability, it can be placed into Strategic Reserves.
EXPEDITIOUS EXIT
BROTHERHOOD STRIKE - STRATEGIC PLOY STRATAGEM
Pragmatists well aware of their irreplaceable value, the warriors of Titan will not spend themselves needlessly in losing battles.
WHEN: End of your opponent's Fight phase,
TARGET: One GREY KNIGHTS PSYKER Infantry unit from your army.
EFFECT: If every model in your unit has the Deep Strike ability, remove your unit from the battlefield and place it into Strategic Reserves.
Designer's Note: This Stratagem allows you to remove a unit in addition to those removed using the Gate of Infinity rule, and it allows you to remove a unit within Engagement Range of one or more enemy units,
One of the main drawbacks to Gate of Infinity is that it removes your units at the end of the opponent’s Fight phase, so they’re not around to control objectives in your following Command phase. The Augurium Task Force Detachment does not respect this limitation, using their Prescient Redeployment rule to warp a unit out at the start of the Movement phase instead, while the Redirected Strike Stratagem can pick up anyone with the Deep Strike ability once all of their scoring is done.*
DETACHMENT RULE
AUGURIUM TASK FORCE:
PRESCIENT REDEPLOYMENT
Combining the psychic disciplines of precognition and translocation, the Grey Knights rapidly relocate in response to strategic manoeuvres the foe has yet to make.
From the second battle round onwards, at the start of your Movement phase, if you did not select the maximum number of GREY KNIGHTS units from your army using the Gate of Infinity ability at the end of your opponent's previous turn, you can select one GREY KNIGHTS unit from your army that is on the battlefield that could have been selected using the Gate of Infinity ability. Remove that unit from the battlefield and place it into Strategic Reserves.
Designer's Note: This means that your unit can retain its position on the battlefield at the end of your Command phase, and then be placed into Strategic Reserves at the start of your Movement phase, to set it up again in your Reinforcements step in another position.
REDIRECTED STRIKE
AUGURIUM TASK FORCE - EPIC DEED STRATAGEM
Precognitive intelligence, strategic cunning and potent psychic power allow these Grey Knights to be virtually in two places simultaneously.
WHEN: End of your Command phase.
TARGET: One GREY KNIGHTS PSYKER unit from your army that is not within Engagement Range of one or more enemy units.
EFFECT: If your unit has the Deep Strike ability, it can be placed into Strategic Reserves.
Designer's Note: This Stratagem lets players utilise abilities that retain control of objective markers and react to their missions and objectives with this unit.
Jumping into and out of the battlefield isn’t the only trick the Grey Knights have. The Sanctic Spearhead Detachment gives Vehicles the classic ability to add 6” to their movement when Advancing instead of rolling, and now also confers the Assault rule on their weapons – along with a package of Enhancements and Stratagems designed to make your armoured motor pool hit extra hard.
Nemesis Dreadknights, being both Vehicles and Deep Strike-havers, love this one.
The remaining two Detachments focus more on hitting hard than moving around, with the Hallowed Conclave built around the Grey Knights’ iconic Terminators. A charge from these silver behemoths hits with enough force to buckle armour plates and smash lesser foes to paste, as evidenced by the Grind Them Underfoot Stratagem.
GRIND THEM UNDERFOOT
HALLOWED CONCLAVE - STRATEGIC PLOY STRATAGEM
A psychic shock wave drives foes to their knees at the moment before the Terminators' armoured mass smashes into them with killing force.
WHEN: Your Charge phase, just after a GREY KNIGHTS TERMINATOR unit from your army ends a Charge move.
TARGET: That GREY KNIGHTS unit.
EFFECT: Select one enemy unit within Engagement Range of your unit, then roll one D6 for each model in your unit that is within Engagement Range of that enemy unit: for each 4+, that enemy unit suffers 1 mortal wound (to a maximum of 6 mortal wounds).
The Banishers Detachment instead champions the Chapter’s powerful psychic abilities, enhancing their close combat attacks and providing all kinds of general buffs to Infantry and Characters. Their indomitable wills and hexagrammic wards are so potent that enemy Psykers can suffer a Hexwrought Reprisal when launching their own spells at the Grey Knights, getting almost as good as they give.
HEXWROUGHT REPRISAL
BANISHERS - EPIC DEED STRATAGEM
Hexagrammic wards worked into this warrior's wargear blaze to life, bringing down a potent empyric curse upon those who dared seek to harm him.
WHEN: End of any phase.
TARGET: One GREY KNIGHTS PSYKER unit from your army that is on the battlefield and suffered one or more mortal wounds this phase.
EFFECT: Select one enemy unit which inflicted one or more mortal wounds on your unit this phase,
then roll a number of dice equal to the number of mortal wounds your unit suffered this phase: for each 2+, that enemy unit suffers one mortal wound (to a maximum of 6 mortal wounds). These mortal wounds are Psychic Attacks.
You’ll be able to dig into the rest of their tricks when Codex: Grey Knights is released alongside the Sanctic Conclave battleforce – containing the new Grand Master in Nemesis Dreadknight – in just a few weeks, so make sure to get your pre-orders in this Saturday.
* This one is especially good with Strike Squads, who can use their Sanctifying Ritual ability to retain control of an objective before warping over to another one.
