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Hey people I am considering starting a Grey Knights army I must admit ive loved them since the days of the Daemonhunters codex however I never started the army then as it was all in metal. However now that they are available in plastic I am looking at starting the army. I do have a few questions however
1)Is the army still considered over powered? if so could you explain why
2)For troop choices how viable are strike squads and basic Grey Knight Terminators (love both of these units )
3) What are the weaknesses of a all GK army (maybe il add a crazy inquisitor and his warband one day but not today)

1. Overpowered? I'd say no. That said, they are still a top notch army overall.
2. Strikes are okay, but basic terminator are pretty poor compared to other choices.
3. Weaknesses. Low model count, vulnerable to top notch psychic defense (Eldar and SW only at this point I think) and you run the risk of being labelled a power gamer and playing very few pick-up games.

 Carnage43 wrote:
1. Overpowered? I'd say no. That said, they are still a top notch army overall.
2. Strikes are okay, but basic terminator are pretty poor compared to other choices.
3. Weaknesses. Low model count, vulnerable to top notch psychic defense (Eldar and SW only at this point I think) and you run the risk of being labelled a power gamer and playing very few pick-up games.

Thank god they are not over powered anymore . Pick up games are not a concern for me as I very rarely play pick up games I generally play against 3 or 4 people most of the time. Im thinking about trying to have a varied force (so termies and strikes as troops purifiers and paladins in elites the teleporty grey knights in fast attack and for heavy support 2 dreadknights and a purgatation squad (may only take 1 dread knight tho)

1) I think that Grey Knights aren't still overpowered. At low point levels you are going to mainly run inquisition if you don't want to get your ass kicked.
2) Terminators are good they are expensive though, and strike squads are a bit meh. If you can I would suggest running purifiers because 4 flamers per squad of 10 for free is just a great deal. And you can run Crowe to make them troops. However if you don't like that idea then just a basic strike squad with a psycannon and daemon hammer is pretty good. I usually run 2 5 man strike squads in rhinos.
3) Biggest weakness is going to have to be their points. Honestly for a basic strike squad you are going to pay 100 points while another MEQ player will be paying around 75. And that's before all the shiny new toys.

Over all as a recent starter of a GK army I would say that 800 points (yes I know it is weird) is the lowest point value you can play until 1500+ you just can't get enough on the board to make a difference. It is a tough life and you will have to play larger games if you want to run true GK and not just inquisition.

In 5th we were top of the tree with necrons, but in 6th we have fallen into the middle pack. I dont think terminators are that good, take paladins, they are much better. You dont have to take draigo but a grandmaster to make them scoring is a good bet.

Weakness depends on your build. Strike spam fears mass AP3 and helldrakes, paladins fear vendettas or demolishers etc. It so hard to build a TAC list that you will have a few hard counters regardless.

In 5th, GK's were absolute filth and ruined the game for a goodly number of people...
Wound allocation games with Pallies were almost impossible for non-tailored lists to beat in a Kill Points mactch for example, while Purifyer spam forced every single Ork player to pretty much run a Kanwall/Loota spam type of list and try to out-shoot the Knights.
The problem with Grey Knights is they have built-in hard-counters to specific types of lists which makes for really boring games when you get those match-ups. (ie: Puriferys outright cripple any GEQ Horde type list)

In 6th, due to the changes to vehicles no longer being godly, ap values being added to assaults and buffs to things like rapid fire weapons, the GK's aren't quite as skewed as they were.
However, the book is still utterly broken against Daemons, even to the point you can outright win any game simply by have 30+ Warp Quake models and going first.


Strikes are solid choice now due to the changes to vehicle survivability & assaulting from them making Purifyers or Deathcult/Crusaders far less of an auto-take. For their cost, they're pretty good value for putting lots of S4 or S5 guns on the table, plus you can give them a pair of Psycannons and a MC Halberd for the Justicar. Taking a couple squads gives you some solid numbers in an all-Knight force.
An army of all Strikes is pretty terrifying actually as you can still easily put 40-50 bodies on the table + support elements like a couple Dreads and/or a Dreadknight and a few transports for example.

Termies overall are pretty good in 6th due to the change to specialist close combat weapons like power swords or lightning claws becoming ap3, while most ap2 stuff is now swinging at I1.
While GK Termies themselves don't tear through 2+ saves anymore, they're still Termies! Plus you can give them a nice balance between I6 Halberds and defensive 4++ Swords - an option every other Marine player would kill for!
The downside to running lots of Termies obviously is cost. Each Termie is equal to 2 Strike Knights, so taking them basically means you're outright halving the number of Troops you'll have on the table.


Low model count is no longer as big a weakness really since you can spam cheap Strikes and/or bring in Allies such as IG for numbers. Choosing to go a Termiewing or other specialist list is your own personal handi-cap, just like for example a CSM player who chooses to play pure World Eaters is severely limiting themselves and will almost certainly lack anti-tank/flyer.

Eldar RoW of corse hurts GK's bigtime, but it's still nowhere near as bad as the hard-counters GK's themselves can bring against other armies. Losing your psychic powers may stink, but it's not outright crippling in the same way that say Warp Quake or bringing hidden Banishers is to a poor Daemon player!
Likewise for SW's. So they'll put the kibosh on roughly 50% of your psychic games. Boo-hoo. GK's still outright own SW's inside their prefered range since you out-shoot them and ignore their saves in assaults. Longfangs can be easily delt with by shunting Interceptors and/or a shunting Dreadknight. (he's pretty expensive though)



Overall, Grey Knights are a primarily shooting army that dominates at 24" range. Your assault capabilities are more for finishing off weakened units and are not ment to be your primary focus.
Between mass Storm Bolters, (which can be upgraded to S5 for feth's sake!), and mass Psycannons, there's not much that really wants to get into a p***ing match with you! Add in the ability to spam cheap Psybacks, (Razorbacks w/Psybolt upgrade for S6 twin-linked Heavy bolters), the absurdly undercosted psyfleman dread and/or gattling Psylencer/Heavy Incinerator Dreadknights for even more shooting dominance.

If you go for Strikes/Interceptors, then every single Deep Strike army in existance just got heavily hosed, while Daemons become outright unplayable unless they go first.

I too started grey knights because I've always loved them and that they are now plastic.

Experiment626 mentioned the GK's truly effective range of 24". This, and the typically low model count, are their two biggest weaknesses in my eyes - it's become that way since the importance of shooting rose in 6th, anyway.
Strike squads are great for bulking your numbers out and of course they can take objectives as well. The Terminators are great as a backup unit or to port in at a crucial moment, but I wouldn't build a force around having them as a core. If you want Termie troops, Draigowing is more effective.

To counter the lack of ranged weaponry, you can do two things. Either take the few options you do have for range - Dreadnoughts, Stormravens - or turtle up into some transports to get you across the field quick and into the all important 24". While expensive, Land Raiders do of course have the benefit of having long-range weapons AND all but guaranteeing one unit reaches its destination.