Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

While reading Grey Knights, I was surprised when the Allking's army charged the Grey Knights and Alaric thought something about GKs being brought down by sheer numbers. When last I looked, Astartes in Power armour is worth at least a thousand guardsmen each. Shouldn't the force of GKs be able to slaughter a pre-gunpowder army without breaking a sweat, let alone getting worried?

The cavalry were not horses. They were giant lizards. There were a lot of them.

I thought they had special lances of some sort, but I haven't actually read that GK book in some time.

a SM may be worth a thousand guardsmen, but 10,000 at one time all charging and chaos pumped?

A bolter only goes so fast.....

It's been a while since i read that but the GK didn't get much time to shoot either.

Their Nemesis Force Weapons, which are just whatever weapon they want with psychic channeling materials down the blade. Yea it counts as a power weapon, but eventually you lose the ability to move if you are surrounded by enemies (or friends)

The weapons can be anything, the normal is a Halberd though. Swords, hammers, scythes, clubs, fists, claws, etc.

WARORK93 wrote:a SM may be worth a thousand guardsmen, but 10,000 at one time all charging and chaos pumped?

A bolter only goes so fast.....

you have a point, a marine may kill 1000 men before he falls... not in one fight

WARORK93 wrote:a SM may be worth a thousand guardsmen, but 10,000 at one time all charging and chaos pumped?

A bolter only goes so fast.....

They weren't guardsmen, they were medieval knights, spearmen, archers and swordsmen, with a small amount of them riding giant lizards. Furthermore, this was the "normal" army, so they weren't chaos pumped. While I can agree that the lizards could be dangerous to the GKs, I just can't see how swords and spears are supposed to pierce power armour, let alone TDA.

AlmightyWalrus wrote:

WARORK93 wrote:a SM may be worth a thousand guardsmen, but 10,000 at one time all charging and chaos pumped?

A bolter only goes so fast.....

They weren't guardsmen, they were medieval knights, spearmen, archers and swordsmen, with a small amount of them riding giant lizards. Furthermore, this was the "normal" army, so they weren't chaos pumped. While I can agree that the lizards could be dangerous to the GKs, I just can't see how swords and spears are supposed to pierce power armour, let alone TDA.

I think its just because the GK's and Alaric have some seriously bad luck.

Also, I'm pretty sure the enemy was tainted with chaos considering their temple had just blown up into a massive warp rift (IIRC)

wizard12 wrote:

AlmightyWalrus wrote:

WARORK93 wrote:a SM may be worth a thousand guardsmen, but 10,000 at one time all charging and chaos pumped?

A bolter only goes so fast.....

They weren't guardsmen, they were medieval knights, spearmen, archers and swordsmen, with a small amount of them riding giant lizards. Furthermore, this was the "normal" army, so they weren't chaos pumped. While I can agree that the lizards could be dangerous to the GKs, I just can't see how swords and spears are supposed to pierce power armour, let alone TDA.

I think its just because the GK's and Alaric have some seriously bad luck.

Also, I'm pretty sure the enemy was tainted with chaos considering their temple had just blown up into a massive warp rift (IIRC)

IIRC, as I've been in a reading frenzy, only the Allking's household guard were directly tainted by chaos, giving them useful additions such as eyes in their stomachs, extra limbs etc.

People seem to underestimate the power of sheer numbers. Power Armour still has joints that a primitive medieval blade can sink through. To say a Space Marine is worth 100 men is accurate, but not all at the same time.

Yeah, what EF said.

In a fight, I'd want a space marine.

In a battle, I'd take those one-hundred guardsmen.

Darkvoidof40k wrote:Yeah, what EF said.

In a barfight, I'd want a space marine.

In a bar, I'd take those one-hundred guardsmen.

Fixed your post.

But seriously, given the choice of a duel to the death with a Space Marine in full power armour or one hundred men in Medieval gear I'd take my chances with the Space Marine. Not that either way bodes an outcome in my favour.

Meh, I find worrying about everyone getting killed while you have 5 terminators a bit too much (not to mention the Thunderhawks, WTF were they doing staying on the ground?).

On to my next question:

How can a Canoness of the Adepta Sororita NOT know that the Grey Knights work for the Inquisition? Sure, they're super-secret and all that stuff, but you'd imagine that someone as high as a Canoness should know that they're on the same side...

A canoness from an irrelevant backwater that probably hadn't even seen an inquisitor in a few centuries? Probably not the most well versed in Inquisitorial structure.

But really, those are the problems you see with the book? How about how Alaric learned the daemon's true name from the transcript of the mad inquisitor's ravings under interrogation? How do you learn unpronounceable syllables from a written transcript? Why would he trust the insane gibberings of a fallen inquisitor who helped his previous quarry escape execution? How did he kill a mile long daemon by poking it with a meter or two long sword a couple of times after startling it by mumbling its true name? Why did the book end with a scene of the deathcultist who freed the inquisitor sitting on a hill thinking about how awesome it totally is that it doesn't serve anyone else anymore?

Of course, the second book kind of tops it with the climactic battle where Alaric duels an STC, and defeats it by convincing it to pretend it's a daemon so his weapons can hurt it...

I don't even want to know what the third book pulls...

I doubt that anyone outside the Ordo Malleus and perhaps a few knowledgeable Inquisitors knows much if anything at all about the Grey Knights.
Regarding the Grey Knights novels, they suck, badly, in all possible ways

Innocence Proves Nothing has the ordo towers in the Tricorn on Scintilla guarded by the ordos' respective allied military body. The Hereticus one has SoB sentries, Xenos has Deathwatch, and Malleus has Grey Knights. It'd probably be safe to assume that at least high ranking members of factions serving the inquisition are aware of what factions directly serve the Inquisition...

Not reading through your posts, but yes, those are the problems I see, as I haven't read the rest yet!

I actually enjoyed Grey Knights, enough so to read it a few times. Sure, I wasn't as stooped in Warhammer 40k lore at the time, but it was the first Black Library novel I ever read and I do enjoy it for what it was. The story isn't THAT great, but that book is about 8 years out of date with current fluff, and the characters were great.

Or maybe the whole thing was just Imperial propaganda..