Following up from Wednesday’s post, I wanted to continue my break down of how 6th edition has effected various Grey Knight units. We did troops (including Henchmen) yesterday, so I think it’s time to move on to Elites.
Purifiers
Upsides of 6th:
- There will be many more hordes now! Orks and Tyranids are back. Cleansing Flame is one of the better anti-horde powers in the game, and you’ll have plenty of chances to use it.
- Good Dakka. Purifiers don’t really have the same level of dakka output Strike Squads do (per pt), but the extra psycannons can be nice, and they’re less afraid of being assaulted.
- Free Incinerators! Flamers will be huge in 6th ed, you watch.
Downsides of 6th:
- Again, you’re going to be on foot a lot more, and purifiers are very expensive per wound.
Total Change (not a pure weight by bullet points): +2 I think it mostly comes down to cleansing flame and the fact you’re going to see a lot more hordes.
Paladins
Upsides of 6th:
- ZOMG, wound allocation. Wasn’t one of the main points of 6th edition to change wound allocation so that multi-wound (individually equipped) units got less silly? And then, they make every paladin a character, complete with Look Out Sir! rolls. An entire article can (and probably will) be written on this subject, but suffice to say it is at least as good as the old wound allocation for paladins. It’s worse in some ways, better in others, but mostly better with a character such as Draigo to tank for the unit.
- Related, but different, you not longer have to spend extra points making sure each model is individually equipped.
- Precision Shots. Hey guess what? Every 6 you get to decide where the shot goes. hey, at least it’s less silly than Nobz doign the same thing.
- The Divination psychic discipline. In almost any large squad, you’re going to dedicate a psyker to take divination and use it on this squad. The primaris power alone is fantastic. 16 twin linked psycannon shots? yeah, that’s goign to happen.
- Obviously, they benefit from AP3 power weapons same as any other terminator. Not going to help against Thunderhammer – Stormshield terminators, but again, shoot them.
- Challenges. Take them on any model you want, depending on the situation. Solodins can now take on a squad with a powerfist sergeant, just challenge him. He either accepts or doesn’t, but either way you kill a bunch of dudes.
- Overwatch? Yeah, short of orks, these guys rock at it more than any other unit. Especially with those Divination powers.
Downsides of 6th:
- Uh, there will be more plasma? Except there will likely be less melta, so even this seems good.
- Oh, I almost forgot, Kill points. Kill points are 1/6 of book missions now, and Draigo-wing just auto-wins at that mission type. But who knows how often Tournaments run kill points? I’ve been to a tournament where every single mission had kill points primary. Feast of Blades I know is still 1/3.
- It’s an official rule that a unit can only score one objective.
Total Change: +5!!! These guys got a ton of benefits, almost no downside. Kill point missions aside, you still can’t run your entire army on them, and I’d even say that the pure Draigo-wing army is a little less viable than before. But as an individual performer, paladins have only gotten better.
Venerable Dreadnoughts
Let’s cover this under normal heavy Dreadnoughts, but they’re worse in comparison. The vehicle damage chart is much less important now, and they have the same number of hullpoints. You’re now paying like 60 extra pts for not a whole lot of bang. Would it have been so awful to give them an extra hull point, or the “character” type? They’re thousands of years old! Total Change: -2
Techmarine
Upsides of 6th:
- Ability to repair hull pts! Can make a Land Raider as tough, or tougher, than it once was. Since they’re a decent upgrade for a Death Cult assassin squad with grenades, this works out well. Can have a similar effect for a Storm Raven, though I think you’re more likly to crash all at once with that, better to get out ASAP.
- Can’t be picked out in Close Combat! Always it’s greatest weakness.
- Has both a 2+ save and 2 powerfist attacks. If you’re not a great fighter otherwise, these two things are the main ingredients to being a good CC fighter.
- Actually a decent challenge fighter now. A techmarine will beat on average, something like a GK Grand Master in a fight. Watch out if they have a powerfist or similar, of course.
- You are going to find the free flamer and plasma pistol uber useful.
Downsides of 6th:
- Really best used in a Land raider or Storm Raven, and while these vehicles are still good, they are in some ways trickier to use.
Total Change: +3. The hull point thing is nice, but it’s mostly the 2+ save and powerfist that will make them so (much more) useful.
Assassins (the big boy kind)
Without going through the different permutations, I don’t know that any of these make a great deal of sense at the moment. The Vindicare saw a bit of a fad use after the Grey Knight codex came out, but they turned out to be really useful at killing vehicles, and relatively worthless against individual models the way their sniper image suggests. It is unclear if they by pass Look Out Sir! rolls at moment, making them even worse. All the other assassins are way to0 expensive for what they do. Total Change: -2 for Vindicare, and no one really ever took the other three.
That wraps up the Elites section! Next up, the Fast Attack and Heavies, and on to characters.
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