Howdy ya'll! I had the chance to play 4 games of 10e with Grey Knights this past weekend. I ran the same list each time and ran into four different factions, and have very interesting takeaways based on the units I used and how they played on the battlefield.

First, here's the list:

• Librarian - (Inescapable Wrath)
• Librarian - (Sigil of Exigence)
• Librarian
• Terminators x5
• Terminators x5
• Terminators x5
• NDK - (Psycannon Incinerator)
• NDK - (Psycannon Incinerator)
• NDK - (Psycannon Incinerator)
• Purgation - (5 incinerators)
• Strikes

I live in a super competitive zone for 40k, so I picked out what I thought could be a good all-comers list at 2000 points. Here are the armies I faced off against:

• Tau (a little of everything)
• Tyranids (monster mash)
• Black Templars (gross)
• Imperial Knights (3 big knights, 3-4 armigers)

Here are some of my thoughts on each of the GK units I fielded based on their performance in these matchups:

Librarian

The absolute GOAT. These are the only REAL answer to anything huge and tough for us, and they generally do incredibly well. Vortex of Doom is incredibly versatile because it's not limited by advancing/falling back or being locked in combat. The mortals saved my life in each of my games in one way or another. If you want to play GK competitively, you'll run 3 of these guys. Against Tyranids, I picked up a Maleceptor with 2 Librarians from full wounds. It's just gross.

Terminators

I was initially skeptical of Terminators, I'll admit, but they're fantastic. They are far more durable than you would expect - T5 is a great tipping point into plenty of guns, and Truesilver Armor ensures that your opponent gets minimum value out of their offense. I only ever got tabled against Black Templars (more on that later), and in each other game I only lost a total of 1 Terminator squad. The rest lived til the end of the game and kept reviving turn after turn. It was frustrating for my opponents, and their high OC made scoring much easier. Lethal Hits on the charge is also basically essential because of how much toughness is out there for our paltry S6 to cut through.

Make use of cover, btw. You get it in many new ways in 10e so make sure you know your terrain rules. It makes a HUGE difference on survivability.

Nemesis Dreadknights

I was initially excited about Dreadknights getting advance/fall back shoot charge and all that jazz, but I have to be honest... these units are bad. They are fast and flexible, yes, but their damage output is a total pittance. The melee profile is gutted, and S10 does absolutely nothing into the stuff that Dreadknights out to be duking it out with.

Worse than that, Psycannons do basically nothing into large targets as well. Cover is incredibly easy for vehicles and monsters to benefit from, so it wasn't uncommon for me to shoot 6 times, score 1 wound on a Tyrannofex, and then have it saving on 2 because its tongue was hanging around a building corner and granting cover.

Honestly, I'm dropping all my Dreadknights in favor of more Terminators and characters. They never pulled their weight in any of my games, and I can't recommend them. Far too expensive for their poor output.

Purgation Squad

This unit was a lot of fun, and very frustrating for people to deal with. I played them by placing them such that their flamers could cover the entirety of the middle objective from out of line of sight, and then used overwatch if a soft unit came in for a cheap trade. It's really good damage into weaker targets, and would even do appreciable chip damage into T11 stuff or weaker. I'm a fan of them, and I think Incinerator Purgators will be seen in plenty of lists going forward.

On top of that, the new 2 armor is incredible. I only ever lost my Purgation Squad against Black Templars.

Strike Squad

I'm not leaving home without a squad of these guys. Stick objectives is IMMENSELY helpful for new GK because our model count is so low. Seriously, we're just shiny, silver Custodes at this point. Sticky objectives gives a ton of flexibility, and the ability to Prognosticated Arrival with OC2 models was big. It swung me a few places and was just fun to play. Overall, I recommend 1 squad for sure - they're amazing. I'm not certain more are required or recommended.

Okay so now let me talk a little bit about the key takeaways from my various matchups:

Tau

Tau is an interesting matchup for us, and ultimately was fun and relatively close. Keeping CP for Ingress to make charges easier is definitely recommended where possible. Mists of Deimos is also HUGE into them because Breachers need to be within 10" to fire, so if they get even a hair too close, you can just walk away and they can't shoot at you.

Vortex of Doom on Librarians ignore Lone Operative, so feel free to smash up Shadowsun or Ghostkeels from afar with impunity. It'll anger your opponent because it's honestly bvllshlt.

Tyranids

This game was incredibly close, and it was won on the back of Mists of Deimos, Sigil of Exigence, and the extra OC from Terminators. They retain the 1 OC from Ancients when Battleshocked, so they can still contest objectives, which was HUGE for scoring.

You will struggle to take down monsters with GK, so it's important to focus your efforts appropriately. Focus on taking them down one at a time rather than spreading out - that way you're taking fewer attacks turn over turn.

Black Templars

I don't have expletives enough for this matchup. It's awful to fight against. After playing two winning games and feeling pretty resilient, the BT humbled the crap out of me with a T4 board clear.

People downplay the intensity of the anti-psyker vow, but it's intensely dangerous for us. Yes, the 4 invuln is annoying, and anti-psyker is a pain, but it's the Devastating Wounds accompanied by the invincible Gimauldus Blob that ruined my game. The Justiciar alone did 26 mortal wounds to my Terminators because of his Devastating Wounds paired with Anti-Psyker, and the swordy boys with hammers did similar output. There was nothing I could do to survive, it was a blowout.

If you get this matchup, play extremely cagey and try not to go head on like I did. The Grimaulus squad is functionally invincible, and then it will be an anvil against which you get hammered. You can still win the objectives and play keepaway, so think of how you can commit without ever getting stuck in combat with stuff that can delete you.

Imperial Knights

I was worried that knights would be more problematic, but this matchup was honestly fine. The high durability means you rarely wound, but the auto-wounds on Terminators work very well to chip knights heavily. More than anything else, Terminators play a big role in winning because of high OC and resilience to AP1/AP2 shooting, which is what IK have in abundance. Just pop TSA within cover and bounce all the damage!

From here, I'll talk a little about GK generally, 10e, and what I'm loving/hating so far.

GK First Impressions

Most importantly, new GK are incredibly fun to play, but they seem like a high skill ceiling faction. You definitely can't play sloppily without being punished, and you need to pay attention to capitalize on opponent misplays.

I feel like GK currently capture the power fantasy of being a teleporting Doom guy made of chrome and warp dust, which thrills me - I can't wait to play more! The speed, the strategems, and the overall flexibility of the faction makes it extremely fun to play.

What's more, I realized this weekend that you could replicate my list with 3 Combat Patrols, making this the cheapest "competitive" army to buy from scratch in 40k. We're more cost effective than Custodes now - and we're running a similar number of models on the table!

Speaking of models on the table, some of the point hikes looked brutal, but many of them were just fine. Power armor bodies are much more durable, not only because of 2 armor, but because game-wide we're seeing less AP. That extra armor makes such a huge difference.

There are a few things I'm a little less excited about, of course. First of all, the homogenization of nemesis weapons leaves us vulnerable to high toughness foes. It really does suck to have nothing that can directly counter or address tough models - you just have to cheese them with Librarians, which people will hate going against.

Oh, and don't get me started on Black Templars and the anti-psyker devastating wounds combo. Being a Psyker in the 40k universe right now feels bad - it only gives drawbacks, some of which are severe. IMO, anti-[unit] should never count as a critical wound unless it's a natural 6 on the dice. That would help the BT matchup, but time will tell if GW sees this as much of a problem as I do.

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Anyhoo, just wanted to share a few thoughts, if not for my own decompression. There's a lot to enjoy in the GK index, and I'm looking forward to more 40k. Cheers!