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So we all know GK is the elite of the elite of the elite. Creme de la creme. They can do it all and are the best examples of the Astartes.

However, there is only 1000 of them.

What would the universe look like if there as many GK as Custodes--which if memory serves is something like 10,000?

not much diferance as there STILL wouldn't be eneugh


Personally I'd prefer the idea of each brotherhood being 1000 men strong with 10 100 man companies. makes a bit more sense given the rank of grand master and brother-captain

Roberts84 wrote:
So we all know GK is the elite of the elite of the elite. Creme de la creme.

When dealing with demons, no question. But when the enemys are orks, tyranids, chaos spacemarines etc, they dont seem to fair much better than "regular" marines. That notion died with the demon hunters codex.

They'd fare a bit better against Orks and whatnot considering their psykers but not enough to be worthwhile.

pm713 wrote:
They'd fare a bit better against Orks and whatnot considering their psykers but not enough to be worthwhile.

Ye, but their martial prowess is on par with that of regular marines, not above.

 Andersp90 wrote:

pm713 wrote:
They'd fare a bit better against Orks and whatnot considering their psykers but not enough to be worthwhile.

Ye, but their martial prowess is on par with that of regular marines, not above.

So your logic is that an army with better weaponry and psychic powers all round isn't better than a worse equipped version of them because they have the SAME skills? That makes no sense.

Actually, it woudln't change much, the grey knights approach of banishing demons is quite like healing the symptoms of a deseases but getting rid of the virus. They'd be less demonic incursion succeeding, but they's still happen.

Against other foes, considering they're not specially trained nor equipped to deal with them, they'd do nothing outstanding. Even in the current state of things they whatsoever only fight orks, eldars or tyranids etc to cut a way through X demonic artefact or portal and won't try to actually put an end to the xenos invasion or dominion over the planet if it already fell.

That said we don't need any more super elite elite so as much as I like grey knights them being a little few does'nt bother me.

What would change? Probably nothing. GW would just make Grey Knights weaker to compensate for higher numbers. Gotta maintain that status quo.

As said above, daemonic incursions (which are now more common than ever, due to the Rift) would be countered more often, and we'd see disproportionally more Warp-based invasions falter.

That's not to say that the Grey Knights would be useless or even worse than normal Marines against Orks, Eldar, Necrons, etc etc (they still have a massive amount of Terminator Armour, psychic powers, force relics, and so on), but they'd be even more effective against daemons.

So, more accurately, it's a case of "what would the universe look like if there were another 9000 Terminators", and those Terminators happen to be extra good at killing Daemons.

pm713 wrote:

 Andersp90 wrote:

pm713 wrote:
They'd fare a bit better against Orks and whatnot considering their psykers but not enough to be worthwhile.

Ye, but their martial prowess is on par with that of regular marines, not above.

So your logic is that an army with better weaponry and psychic powers all round isn't better than a worse equipped version of them because they have the SAME skills? That makes no sense.

Sorry, my wording was wrong. I ment "they dont seem to fair much better than". It has been corrected.

 Sgt_Smudge wrote:


So, more accurately, it's a case of "what would the universe look like if there were another 9000 Terminators", and those Terminators happen to be extra good at killing Daemons.

Pretty much.

Custodes are superior to Grey Knights.
A better question would be what the galaxy would be like with twice as many Custodians

123ply wrote:
Custodes are superior to Grey Knights.
A better question would be what the galaxy would be like with twice as many Custodians

It would make no difference.

There would be fewer successful daemonic incursions, but I wonder how effective the efforts of the Exorcists, the GK's successor chapter, currently are.

If there were more GK in universe would the cause not be more humans showing psychic potential meaning more chances for the ruinous powers to manifest?

I'm not sure how GK's recruit but sure that one of the musts is latent psychic talent?

123ply wrote:
Custodes are superior to Grey Knights.
A better question would be what the galaxy would be like with twice as many Custodians

Unless they retcon how useless they are absolutely nothing would change.

Wow, I did not know there was only 1k of them. They lost a whole 100 man company on the planet of sorc's dealing with the chaos ritual. Thats a hard blow.

Not really. With how GW handles replenishment they'll be A-OK before you can say "wait this doesn't make sense".

pm713 wrote:
Not really. With how GW handles replenishment they'll be A-OK before you can say "wait this doesn't make sense".

True. Its the same with Rubrics. Rubrics being a finite resource but magic sand takes care of that.

Considering the GK were made from the lesser quality SM Geneseed, and the Custodes were each handmade by the Emperor, I would say they wouldn't survive the initiation. Even if they were primaris. Valarian takes down a Primaris without even trying 50% in his book, and the lore behind the Minotaurs make them seem pretty good at fighting.

GK are made from the Emperor.

As someone already mentioned, the change would be irrelevant in the grand scheme of the universe and the size of the warp/Chaos, etc.

The numbers used by GW were unfortunately started around the Rogue Trader, 2nd edition days...and for some reason authors believed that numbers such as a 1,000 and 10,000 etc. were suitably large enough for a universe spanning military organization (even if you had several hundred chapters of space marines, etc.).

Grey Knights lack the numbers to even actually justify being a wargame faction in 40K, let alone having a genuine impact on the universe, outside of a handful of specific instances. It's just the fluff that is off and doesn't computer with a universe consisting of millions of planets, etc.