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Now that most of us have got 7th mostly under our belts with the mysticism of the Psychic Phase now unveiled and how the Maelstrom missions affect list building, I would like to discuss something that both GK players and Imperial players didn't have in 6th edition, being battle brothers with each other. There is a general agreement that the GK have an edge in the Psychic phase with the Inquisition only getting a FAQ through the GK, there are a lot of people going to it in order to get cheap psykers in a psychically piloted rhino/razorback. There is something that I think that any grey knight player has to face though even with the advantage of the amount of psychics that they bring to the table is the amount that GK units cost. With the amount that a GK can do, they are a high costing with on average a 5 man Grey Knight squad being the same amount of points as a 10 man space marine squad. This has sometimes made a difference in a game having a strict disadvantage when you have half the units as your opponent as they overwhelm you with shear numbers. It is sometimes something we can overcome, I have won a couple of games with only a few units left but I won because I played the mission but other times, we just get steam rolled/tabled.

In 7th especially with Maelstrom, Deep Striking with anything is a great advantage or having things that can move fast/survive to get around a map to capture objectives to complete the tactical objectives, it is another aspect that GK can take advantage of being we have shunting and deep striking units. I really do think that deep striking and drop pod armies are going to have a huge surge in popularity in this addition especially with drop pods can score as troops. This opens up the doors for a lot of possibilities even for the GK because drop pods in an ally only enhances some of the pre-existing play styles for the GK and I want to see where people think the meta is going for the GK to overcome the weakness of bringing so little to the table with the high point cost but now we have the ability to merge with the rest of the Imperium and help with some of this.

One avenue is the typical use Coteaz for a cheap ML 2 psyker and use psykers in a psybolted razorback. Through this you get not only some armor with a pretty decent medium strength weapon that can get around to score with. Throw some cheap warrior acolytes in there or some crusaders and there is a pretty decent unit to use to steal objectives. This is a strategy used in 6th but enhanced in 7th. I was never a fan of henchman spam and never really used it but it is a way to overcome the cost. Throwing these cheap scoring units in lets you to take some more of the heavy hitting GK units without fear of bringing too few units to a game. Since the Inquisition has yet to get a FAQ, this is all from the GK codex so it is one that didn't need other Imperial help.

Another possibility which was one I was working on before 7th even hit and that is combing with Space Marines with their Drop Pods. To me, this enhances a shunting army a lot because Interceptors and DK aren't scoring and this lets a lot of scoring to come in 1st turn with Mordrak and his Knights as well the shunters but allows the drop pods to be a permanent scoring unit that has objective secured. I think this will also come with a popularity of using Tigurious as the HQ of leader of this detachment to add to the psyker might of the army that was lost a bit for not taking a pure GK army. Now since I don't like the Ultramarines, I settled for a normal Libby in an Imperial Fist detachment. Not as good but hey, still viable.

There is some powerful combination and I definitely see GK to weather this edition well but the cost of our units will always be an obstacle that we have to get through but now we have some options to help deal with this. Is there anything else anyone came up with? Are other Imperial players thinking of taking GK units to enhance their own psychic phase and are GK players still trying to just win by themselves without any help from Imperial allies?

Interesting question. GK seem to be flavour of the month, mainly because of Santic plus the cheap psykers acolytes.

I'm not sure that GK need to take Imperial allies - there are all the elements in the GK codex to build a list that can deal with 7th (because everything has deep strike). Why dilute your psyker pool with normal tac units? You don't really need 10 anymore (for maelstrom games at least).

Given that all units are now scoring (plus Grand Strategy - superscoring DK anyone?), GK have the ability to be able to work without henchmen, but I think that with a sprinkling of henchmen they are better.

In terms of imperials wanting GK, I think the answer is dependent on whether the inquisition codex allows henchmen troops at the same cost. If so, then no, why would you take GK?

The GK still have expensive units compared to the rest of the Imperial forces when a 5 man squad of GK cost the same a 10 man squad of tac marines. It's a version for people who don't like using henchman really.

I do also think that GK can still be really viable on their own but I just wanted to see if anyone else was merging them or still treating them like the independent force that they were in 6th.

The Inquisition has yet to get a FAQ update for 7th so most have been going back to the GK codex to get forces of the Inquisition.