Killing Grey Knights with Daemons - Part 2 (a): Grey Knights Toolbox

In Part 1 of this series I laid out the major problems that the Daemon Codex has had inflicted on it by a combination of bad design, poor 5th edition compatibility and the superior design balance of codices that came after it.

My original plan was to include all the 'Fuck-You Daemons' abilities into Part 2 as a single article. However there's a lot more of it than I originally thought and I wanted to go into it in quite some detail. So I'm instead going to be further subdividing this section up rather than do it all in one go.

Like this in fact,

Part 2 (a) : 'Army Wide' Advantages.
Part 2 (b) : Psychic Powers.
Part 2 (c) : Whatever War-gear's left to cover...

In this part I'm going to look at what 'across the board' anti-Daemon abilities and war-gear are going to be leaving the Daemon player needing some kind of soothing ointment for the anal region.....

Editors Note : While researching this article it has also become very noticeable that Tyranid players are also going to get shafted by Grey Knights which I'm not going to cover in this article but may come back to in the future ;-)


1) Grey Knights 'Army-Wide' Special Rules*.

* These aren't necessarily going to all be special rules in the traditional sense but are abilities and equipment which are ubiquitous enough to be considered 'army-wide' upgrades.

a) Preferred Enemy (Daemons) - Apparently Grey Knights doctrines and weapons are honed in particular to the slaughter of Daemons which is reflected in game terms as the 'Preferred Enemy' ability, though they only get it against Daemons. Presumably the fighting skills required to chop up a Daemon are completely different from those required to chop up everything else.....
When your unfortunately afflicted with the crappy invulnerable save of Daemons most wounds are going to result in a removed Daemon model, Obviously anything that increases the number of hits is going to compound that problem a great deal. Grey Knights are going to be hitting most things Daemonic on 4's which in real terms gives an increase in hits of 50%. When combined with the ability to be Initiative 6 and therefore striking at the same time as or faster than 90% of Daemons this means many units will be decimated before they get a chance to hit back. Even with 'base' initiative this increase in hits is going to make a substantial difference.

b) Nemesis Force Weapons - Due to all Daemons being 'Eternal Warrior' the fact that these weapons are Force Weapons becomes largely irrelevant. Though the fact that they are Power Weapons as well means that the few Daemon units with a normal armour save (Bloodcrushers, upgraded Daemon Princes, some Heralds, etc.) are back to relying on the crappy invulnerable save that they all get. The flip side to this is that they at least get some kind of save which is more than most units from other codices will be getting.

The 'Eternal Warrior' rule is however somewhat bypassed by the 'Daemonbane' ability that's built into Nemesis Force weapons. Any Daemon (or Psyker) that suffers one or more unsaved wounds from these weapons must take a Leadership test that if failed will cause the model to be removed from play. This ability works regardless of whether the Force Weapons have been activated. In real terms this means you have the following chances of losing your Daemon/Psyker model to this ability,

Leadership 10 - 8.3 % 

Leadership   9 - 16.675 % 

Now I know your thinking that that's not that bad but bear in mind that's an additional chance of dying on top of the other advantages they have against you in combat.....and speaking of combat advantages.....

Expect any Grey Knight unit geared for assault to have the 'Halberd' upgrade which makes the wielder Initiative 6 so they'll be going before furious charging Khorne units and at the same time as many of the Slaaneshi ones even if they don't get the charge. If they do get the charge then your Initiative becomes somewhat irrelevant due to Psyk-Out Grenades.....

c) Psyk-Out Grenades - If the Grey Knight with Psyk-out Grenades charges a unit with a Daemon or a Psyker in it then they're initiative one for the remainder of the phase. Though this will be amusing when a 20 point Grey Knight Strike Squad member reduces Mephiston to Initiative One and then Force Weapons him to death before he gets a chance to hit back it is less amusing for the Daemon player who suddenly finds himself with single digit Initiative Daemonettes and Fiends.....

d) Storm Bolters - Daemons vulnerability to torrents of fire is well documented and doesn't really need the point labouring.....however....
A Grey Knight can pour out the same amount of fire-power at 24" as a normal Marine can at 12" due to his Storm Bolter. Also due to the fact that the Storm Bolter is an assault weapon the Grey Knight at closer ranges can get all the equivalent benefits of Rapid Firing as well as being able to charge (with all the additional benefits that that gives him Vs. Daemons). The ability of certain fast moving Daemon units to drop at a more safe distance before charging in on their next turn is effectively removed as the Grey Knight has the same shots at 24" as he does at 12". Little things like this may seem like 'nit-picking' but each one kills a few more Daemons than would have died to other units and Daemons can't afford the extra losses.


In Summary.
Well that's the very basics covered. The Daemon player is getting the crap shot out of him pretty much wherever he lands and if charged is going to most likely lose anything that survived that first torrent of fire. So even taking the standard equipment and rules into account Grey Knights are well equipped to stick it to the Daemons.

Grey Knights psychic powers are going to cause even more headaches but I'll be covering those in part 2 (b).....

Thoughts and Comments are (as usual) most welcome.