Among other factions, Grey Knights are next in line for some rules supplements in Psychic Awakening: Ritual of the Damned. Let’s hope they get fixed.
Earlier in 8th, Grey Knights were hammered into the ground with FAQ after FAQ essentially making them unplayable. With an already high point cost combined with not being able to deepstrike, for example, they lost all their speed and functionality. So maybe GW will begin to make these guys more relevant with Psychic Awakening. They really can only go up from here.
Chapter Approved 2019 Helped Grey Knights
Grey Knights were given the biggest helping hand they’ve ever gotten in Chapter Approved 2019 since the start of 8th edition.
- Characters: look to have dropped at least 25 pts apiece. Draigo got cut by a whopping 60.
- Army-wide point reduction: Aside from a Servitor, nearly everything in the army including wargear got a point reduction.
- No Full Smite: From what we can tell, the rumors about Grey Knights getting a full smite was bologna.
- Paladins: Still look to be the better alternative to Terminators except for the fact that Terminators can be taken as Troops.
- Heavy Incinerators: got cut in half in terms of points cost (from 40 to 19). We could see “suicide” Dreadknights deepstriking in and flaming multi-wound crowds now.
Grey Knights were designed for Daemon players to play on hard-mode. It wouldn’t make sense for them to be geared out to face every single threat out there in the universe. With that said, they were way too expensive in the first place. Romknightyt on the Reddit forum said:
That just stripped 340 points off my list…. That’s significant. This is what people were saying when they said we were playing with a handicap lol
He basically just said that he could throw a Knight in FOR FREE after these changes. These changes don’t seem too far-out and look to be well-deserved. People may blow the dust off their models and be brave enough to actually try them on the table.
Combined with rules like Shock Assault, the only thing they’re really missing is Doctrines in general including a bonus rule, as well as new relics, Warlord Traits, etc.
Please Don’t Drop the Ball GW
Like we said before, Grey Knights are in a better spot points-wise but are still in the red for getting shafted by GW once again. After a step in the right direction with Chapter Approved, here are some major things we still need for the faction.
- Better Warlord Traits- First to the Fray, (a reroll charge aura) is the only functional Warlord Trait out of their book. While new Warlord Traits can be Daemon-focused, there need to be more playable options to pick from.
- Cheaper/ Better Stratagems- As far as Grey Knights go before all the points changes, you MIGHT have enough CP to use about three stratagems all game long. That pales in comparison to Blood Angels who chew through CP like it’s some good ol’ home-cookin’ their mama made them. And at that, the most functional stratagems are ones like +1 to the save of a character and +1 Strength and +1 AP to bolt weapons.
- A decent Doctrine Bonus Rule- It would be awesome for Grey Knights to make full use of the Doctrines, but for them to have a sick Doctrine bonus would be a huge appeal. And hopefully, GW doesn’t make it something like +1 to Deny the Witch in the Assault Doctrine. While that’s good, they can also go in the direction of maybe giving the full D3 smite by the time the Tactical Doctrine rolls around. (Since the collection of Psykers have all had time to link their minds and what-not, their smites can be more powerful).
- Primaris Units- This one might be a stretch, seeing as they technically don’t exist to 99% of the Imperium at-large, so it would be difficult to line them up for a Primaris Rubicon-day. But in order to keep up with where the rest of the Imperium is going, Primaris gear definitely wouldn’t hurt.
With Ritual of the Damned next in line for Psychic Awakening books, what are you hoping to see the Grey Knights get? Would you like to see a Primaris Draigo hit the field? Is there a certain “hole” in the faction that a stratagem could help fill?
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About the Author: Wesley Floyd
Wesley Floyd
Job Title: Staff Writer
Joined: 2018
Socials: @RealmbrushPainting
About Wesley Floyd: Wes has been in the Warhammer hobby since 2015 and joined the Spikey Bits writing team in 2018. He is known for his satirist takes on trending topics and imaginative yet amazingly affordable hobby solutions to painting Warhammer miniatures.
Imperial fanboy, tabletop fanatic, and the self-proclaimed King of Sprues. He knows for a fact that Mephiston red is the best-tasting paint and is the commission painting equivalent of a Wendy’s 4 for $4. If you like what he writes and want to contact him or have your tabletop minatures painted (to a mostly okayish standard), message him on Instagram.
