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How many of the silver chaps are there? I only have a basic knowledge of the fluff, but as a rapid response anti demonic incursion army, how many super elite psychic mega marines must exist?
For them to even bother being in existence they must be effective at what they do, and therefore they need to be able to kick the nasties back into the warp in a timely manner?
So there are three variables....
1. How long does it take demons to flatten a planet? Or at least be noticed.
2. How long does it take the GK to respond?
3. How many of them do they need to guarantee success?

Given the travel time through the warp, and that most generals seem to need at least 1850 points worth to quell a small hilly field (or new repetitive flat ruined town) and given the size of the Imperium, there must be a couple of million of these dudes? Making them very common indeed.

Thoughts?

Like most other Space Marine Chapters, there are 1000 Grey Knights, give or take.

Daemons can lurk unseen on a planet for centuries, if not millennia, working from the shadows to destabilize the various support systems of the Imperium and working towards its own ineffable goals.

The right Daemon can flatten a planet within minutes of its manifestation in real-space... fortunately, daemons of this power are blessedly rare, and *extremely* difficult to summon. Slyte and the King in Yellow are two such daemons.

Otherwise, depends on the kind of Daemon and what sort of support it has, and what the planet has to defend against it. A moderately-powerful daemon on an Agri-world with a well-armed cult could take control of the planet inside of a year, two at the outside, simply because there aren't the forces present to oppose it.

It can take Space Marines anywhere from hours to years to respond to a threat, depending on conditions in the Warp, whether or not a distress call was ever made from the endangered world, and what the Chapter is busy doing at the time. If the GK were heavily involved in other daemonic incursions, it may be some time before forces are available to respond to a new request.

There is never a guarantee of success.

the Grey Knights are a chapter of Space Marines, the chapter consists of 8 brotherhoods of approx 100 Marines, in addition to these are two independant bodies, the Purifiers, whom there seldom is more then 40 of, and the Paladins whom we are not given numbers for.

Over all, just like any other space Marine Chapter I'd guess that the Grey Knights proably number approximatly 1000 Space Marines.

This doesn't seem like much but the fluff seems to indicate it's rare for more then a squad to be deployed at a time.

Which makes sense as deamonic incursions proably are reasonably rare, doubly so for "Warzone style" incursions.

According to the fluff how many daemons of any cult could a regular grey knight take on before he dies with his standard armerment

Depends on the battleground, the type of daemon, who's writing the book, whether or not the GK are the protagonists or the antagonists, what general level of Daemons we're talking about (a Bloodthirster kicks more ass than a dozen Bloodletters), and whether or not the GK is wearing a helmet.

Haha ok so let's say the GK is the protagonist in a plains environment and is wearing a helmet fighting against bloodletters

 Alienoid wrote:
Haha ok so let's say the GK is the protagonist in a plains environment and is wearing a helmet fighting against bloodletters

That depends. On a Wednesday... 15. Any other day though, you're looking at 10. 12 tops.

But Draigo? Psh, plot armor that thick means swaths. OODLES even.

Then how would 1000 grey knights protect the imperium from daemons? That's if they kill 10-15 daemons before they die

Space marines can't lose though.

Millions of orks? No probs, this half strength company will hold the line.

Demon Lord? Hold on, I'll put my helmet on.

Space Station full of cultist? I brought an extra magazine for my storm bolter.


GK also aren't the only demon hunters. The inquisition has spies, servants and soldiers all over the imperium and when they detect bad joo joo they can't handle, a Squad of GK show up and stomp on it. They aren't out fighting in the big battles of a million dudes on a million dudes. They let the other Space Marines and Imperial Guard deal with that, then they swoop in and cut the head off the beast. (Then mind wipe or kill everyone that saw them)

In fact, I think that is missed a lot in the idea of the universe. Imperial guard armies are million and millions and billions of men at times. A Few Hundred Space Marines or a Squad of GK don't show up and charge randomly across battlegrounds. They show up and crush the high priority targets or lead the critical counterattack, but 99% of what they do would be supported by the Imperial Guard and Imperial Navy. (Sorry got off track there)


Uhh...like 1000 Gks.

Grey Knights are not a standard chapter of Space Marines. They don't follow the codex. There are far, far more than the standard 1000, and their recruitment methods mean they can dip into the entirety of the Imperium for fresh meat.

They also do not respond to threats in a similar manner to other armies. They have psykers whose sole responsibility is determining future daemonic incursions, either by tracking the daemons themselves through time or good ol' seeing the future. They leave for a conflict decades before it is going to happen, and (usually) arrive right on time.

There are not enough Grey Knights to fight off every incursion. Not even close. It is a steady losing battle, and for every daemon they destroy a hundred more get through. Despite all their power and knowledge and resources, they're doomed, along with everyone else.

It's kind of a theme.

 Saevus wrote:
Demon Lord? Hold on, I'll put my helmet on.

NO! YOU FOOL! YOU'LL KILL US A--

Given the travel time to incidents, exterminatus seems like a much better proposition. At least the Inquisition would think so!
Seems a bit difficult to justify the existence of the GK. Marines are already the elite super warriors of the Imperium, so why are super super elite elite warriors needed? What comes next? Power rangers?
Guard can handle anything anyway, power armoured silly Nancy's just get in the way!

Grey Knights are often able to respond pretty quickly, because they have some sort of "seers" which can predict where the next large Daemon incursion will be.

 Inflatable love badger wrote:
Given the travel time to incidents, exterminatus seems like a much better proposition. At least the Inquisition would think so!
Seems a bit difficult to justify the existence of the GK. Marines are already the elite super warriors of the Imperium, so why are super super elite elite warriors needed? What comes next? Power rangers?
Guard can handle anything anyway, power armoured silly Nancy's just get in the way!

The grey knights are trained not only too fight demons but to handle the mental presence of them. The guard have a tendency to go a bit goofy in their presence with results depending on the individual. Space marines have proven themselves vulnerable to the temptations of demons as made evident of chaos space marines. The grey knights have never mentally fallen to the demons and that is the reason for their existence. The gk can be in the presence of a demon and still keep his presence of mind. Weak regular space marines...

It would be much more likely that the grey knights only fight demonic threats where regular marines have failed and the sight is to valuable to expunge via navel bombardment.
The facts are that even regular marines are too rare to properly protect the galaxy, the brunt of the work is done my the guard and the navy. Marines respond to a variety of threats that need their help as and when they can get/have time.

Fluff wise id think a grey knight would kill more than 10 blood letters personally. They have support of there own tanks, air craft and space navy. They would rinse through hoards of lesser demons. its the fatty's that are the issue or when important sights are threatened. Then things become difficult.

Bear in mind, if the Grey Knights didn't bathe in the blood of the Sisters of Battle once in a while they wouldn't be able to handle daemons anymore.

So sayeth your spiritual liege.

 Alienoid wrote:
Then how would 1000 grey knights protect the imperium from daemons? That's if they kill 10-15 daemons before they die

Because daemonic incursions don't happen very frequently. Usually, the GK wipe out the Chaos Cult's human followers before they get a chance to summon daemons into reality.

Also, taking off your helmet gives you a +2 Plot Armor Save and a further +2 Main Character save, ending up with a 1+ Armor Save and a 3+ Dramatic Event save (he'll only be knocked out if it's dramatically appropriate).

 Alienoid wrote:
Then how would 1000 grey knights protect the imperium from daemons? That's if they kill 10-15 daemons before they die

1 squad of them (5ish) can kill a Bloodthirster after a pretty big amount of lesser daemons. Without casualties if they all work together.

 Badablack wrote:
Grey Knights are not a standard chapter of Space Marines. They don't follow the codex. There are far, far more than the standard 1000.

Wrong, Codex Grey Knights eistablishes that the Grey Knights chapter consists of 8 100 man brotherhoods. a select number of purifiers that normally numbers about 40 or so, and an unknown number of Paladins (whom I can't see numbering more then 100)
So if anything they're actually SMALLER then a typical codex chapter.