Of Teleporting Grey Knights

From Blood of Kittehs:

*Nemesis Ward Staff can be only bought for one Grey Knight per squad. So that means only one will be able to take one of those mean wounds.

*Unlike reported before by me and others GKT do not get Storms Shields (with very few exceptions). That means you are stuck with sucky +5 invul saves on termies. What you do get instead is all nemesis force weapons grant a +1 to all invul saves in assault. That means +4 saves in close combat.
 
*A full man unit of Paladins average around 600-800 for 10 of them. So don’t expect to spam many of them.
 
*Add to that the Paladin Captain that makes them troops is the most expensive model in the codex over the cost of a Land Raider.
 
*Sadly the Dread Knight MC thingy cannot be put in a Stormraven.
 
*The worst change that I hinted at back when I first reported the rumors last year. The whole Teleporting Grey Knight once per game thing is for the Grey Knight squads in the Fast Attack slot. That means those guys and the Stormraven are your only FA choices in the entire codex. Normal GKs will not be able to teleport in the game.

Standard disclaimer applies: These are rumors and commentary on rumors. I want the codex now, too. And pics. Gimmeh pics. Here are my thoughts on these rumors:


The Triumph of Common Sense

So! It sounds like the cries of ZOMG GK Paladin unkillable wharrrrgrbll! will likely be mitigated by only 1 2+ invuln per squad. The idea of a bonus to their invuln in assault is one I had not expected. We will see how that pans out. It basically gives all of them the old school style Storm Shields! It will be interesting to see if this applies to the PAGK squads as well (for a 6+ which is just a nice perk of Power Weapon protection where they'd otherwise have none) considering the rumor says all Nemesis Force Weapons. Taking this into consideration it may mean the Warding Staves give a 3+ invuln normally and the 2+ only in assault.

Another blow against the unintelligible cries of Paladin rage is the rumored price cost. Others have claimed it's only 55 points per model, but when comparing to Obliterators, it seems a little low. The 600-800 point range here sounds more reasonable and actually not too far off of that 55 point range (+5 points per model). Add to that to make them troops (or is it just scoring?) to really get the nerdrage going you're going to have to throw a good 275 points in for Supreme High Lord of Everything Shiny Draigo.

The Dreadknight was a possible contender for Dreadnought-style Stormraven riding . . . until the pics came out. It's obviously too big, but it doesn't need it with the Teleport Pack. So not really a surprise at this point. The fact that the Teleport Packs makes the GK Strike Squad Fast Attack is, well, not that surprising either. It even makes sense when considering the current codex. It's taking the current "give PAGKs Deep Strike" and making them actually useful in the current edition as Assault Marine variants. It shouldn't surprise anyone, really.

Overall, these rumors can be summed up as "Well, we thought about it and we went a little overboard. Here are some sane rules."

Paladins: Troops or Scoring?

My opinion will have no effect on the actual rules GW has put together for the GKs. However, I think it would be better for Paladins to simply get scoring with Draigo rather than the Troop designation. Yes, there is the precedent of Dante making Sanguinary Guard into Troops. However, Grey Knights already will have their standard Terminators as Troop choices from the gate. If you want a Greywing army, you don't need any special character. I would argue that they should run with a page from Pedro Kantor and just make the Paladins Scoring instead. Sure, you don't get the super elite feel of, er, Pallywing, but it's still an expensive style of army.

Pallywing: You Got Your Paladins In My Deathwing!

The rumors from start were saying you can field around 20 models in a 2000 point game. With the assumption of Lord Draigo making Paladins Troops, that becomes--while still quite silly--a possibility. Let's look at this under the assumption of 70 points per model on Paladins:

Pallywing List

Lord Draigo -- 275
Paladins (6) -- 420
Paladins (6) -- 420
Paladins (6) -- 420
Paladins (6) -- 420


This brings us to 1955. This doesn't include the Apothecary upgrade, but it does build in an extra 60 points per model from the low end estimate from BoK, so it's possible that you could be able to run 5 standard Paladins plus one with the upgrade and it might fit in 2000 points. Or possibly just dropping a Paladin from one squad. Still, it's 25 models.

Maybe it is up to 80 points per model PLUS the Apothecary upgrade. In that case, you get:

Pallywing List, version 2

Lord Draigo -- 275
Paladins (6) -- 555
Paladins (6) -- 555
Paladins (6) -- 555

This becomes 1940 points for only 19 models. This probably includes a lot of upgrades to weapons and what have you (including a Warding Staff on one per squad).