Space Marines are all exceptionally powerful warriors with the strength to decimate mortal soldiers, but even they struggle when arrayed against daemons – the essence of the warp given physical form. These creatures corrupt the foundations of reality with their mere presence, so to combat such an overwhelming force, a special cadre of Space Marines was created to battle the very worst of humanity’s foes – and win.

They are the Grey Knights, martial might and psychic prowess melded into singularly unstoppable warriors for the sole purpose of halting daemonic incursions. The 666th Chapter is as powerful as it is mysterious, appearing without warning to banish a pre-determined threat before vanishing as quickly as they arrived. Here’s everything you need to know if you’re thinking of starting an army of these gleaming paladins.

Grey Knights Explained

According to some theories, the Grey Knights find their origins in the final days of the Horus Heresy. As the Chaos-empowered Traitors threatened to extinguish everything the Imperium had built, it is said that the Emperor of Mankind saw that he would no longer be able to continue the never-ending war against the Dark Powers alone. The Imperial Truth had failed to hold back the Chaos Gods from manipulating the material world, and on Saturn’s moon Titan, he forged a specialised Chapter of Space Marines in secret – the Grey Knights.

Legends say that he poured every last mote of his genius into the Grey Knights to create the perfect warp-resistant weapons, armouring them in sanctified truesilver and equipping them with psychoreactive Nemesis force weapons. Their minds were honed to a razor’s edge, and alone they were blessed with knowledge of the empyrean so terrible that it drove unprepared minds mad. It is believed that these ascendent Space Marines were one of his last gifts to humanity.

For every thousand Space Marines, there is one Grey Knight – for only the very best candidates will even survive their harrowing induction rituals and intense training. Every neophyte must be psychically gifted, yet pure of mind, and able to withstand the rigours of the warp like no other mortal in the galaxy. So punishing is this process that a vanishingly small number of aspirants succeed, but every one who does emerges as a daemon-slaying champion with an incorruptible soul and immense psychic power.

Most important of all is the utmost secrecy that shrouds the Chapter and their activities, for few in the Imperium truly understand the nature of the warp, and such knowledge corrupts all its tendrils touch. A single mind opened to the powers of Chaos can doom an entire world, so despite taking part in some of the most pivotal and spectacular battles of the last 10 millennia, the Grey Knights go unremarked and unrecorded save for in their own hidden archives.

For most who fight alongside them, silver-armoured warriors simply burst into existence from nowhere and set about destroying unfathomable monsters in a display of holy purity, shining as beacons in the darkness that buoy souls and harden hearts. Unfortunately for them, the need for secrecy is so strong that Imperial forces joined by the Grey Knights are mercilessly liquidated or mind-scrubbed in the wake of victory, with only the agents of the Inquisition permitted to own memories of the knights of Titan.

Every piece of wargear carried into battle by the Grey Knights is a specialised tool crafted by the finest artisans in Titan’s own forges, as far superior to the equipment of regular Space Marines as theirs is to an Imperial Guardsman’s. Their armour and vehicle hulls – known collectively as the Aegis – is laced with psychoactive circuitry and thousands of warding sigils, so that the wearer may channel a portion of their psychic power through it at all times and ward off the worst of the warp’s touch. 

Likewise, their Nemesis force weapons allow the channeling of empyric power along the blade so their touch can scorch the soul of even intangible foes, scouring their presence in the warp and banishing even the mightiest of daemons back to their hellish realms. Some among those precious few who know of the Grey Knights whisper that their wargear even incorporates xenos technology and relics from the horrors of Old Night – ancient and terrible even as the Emperor began his crusade to unite Humanity – though the truth, if it exists at all, is buried deep within the vaults of Titan.

On the battlefield, the Grey Knights leverage their resistance to the warp to jump in and out of swirling portals known as Gates of Infinity, crossing battlefields in an instant to attack from unexpected quarters. They strike hard and fast before the enemy can react, firing sanctified rounds from wrist-mounted storm bolters as they charge into close combat and hack apart their foes with effortless ease.

Despite being tailor-made to fight daemonic incursions, the Grey Knights are no less capable against xenos and heretic armies, where every warrior is still the equal of veteran Space Marines from other Chapters. Their elite nature means they are often outnumbered, but always even the odds with access to powerful vehicles like the Land Raider, Stormraven Gunship, and towering Nemesis Dreadknights.

A Grey Knights army will appeal to players who want to employ a balanced approach to combat with plenty of solutions for every circumstance, but with a handful of powerful units rather than sweeping hordes of lesser chaff. Their armies are extremely fast, with many ways to jump around the battlefield and ignore intervening terrain as you move, and give the distinct feel of a small band of heroes standing strong against overwhelming odds – a bright light gleaming in the darkness.

Combat Patrol

Combat Patrol is a game mode perfect for beginners and veterans alike, in which smaller forces clash in fast-paced, balanced games. The Grey Knights bring a highly capable force to the table with loads of their core units and a strong mix of ranged and close combat power.

Crowe’s Sanctifiers are led by the legendary hero Castellan Crowe, a veteran of thousands of battles who safeguards the daemonic Black Blade of Antwyr with his unshakeable will. His formidable prowess in combat is backed up by a Strike Squad of 10 Grey Knights, whose impenetrable armour makes them ideal for holding objectives and fighting off any opponents who try to muscle them out of the midfield. 

The immensely powerful Venerable Dreadnought and Brotherhood Terminator Squad both start the game off the board and teleport in halfway through, where they will immediately make an impact with devastating weapons and ranged fusillades. They will be extremely difficult to remove once they arrive on the battlefield, but capable commanders will need to know where best to teleport them to get the most out of their unquestionable strength.

All you need to deploy Crowe’s Sanctifiers is a few dice, a ruler, and the downloadable rules below – the Core Rules show you how to play the game, the Combat Patrol datasheets provide a balanced army that’s ready to play, and the Combat Patrol missions give you some thrilling objectives to fight over!

Painting

The Grey Knights, as their name suggests, are almost always seen in glittering silver armour haloed by glowing psychic energy, meticulously maintained with golden details and heraldic symbols all over their wargear. This is not to say that they can only be painted this way, though, and some Brotherhoods may paint their armour in other bright colours to commemorate important campaigns or legendary figures – though silver accounts for the vast majority of their forces at any given time.

Where individual Grey Knights really shine is in their heraldry, as they are among the few Space Marines who allow personal symbols and honour markings across all of their forces. This gives every warrior the feel of a unique knight with their own legacy behind them. Red and white are the most common accompanying colours for heraldic designs, but what you pick is only limited by your imagination – so give them something fancy!

To help ease your miniatures onto the battlefield with a simple, achievable colour scheme that works across a wide variety of units, the Warhammer 40,000 Painting Team have put together a list of paints for the Grey Knights, which can be found in the Combat Patrol box. 

This is by no means an exhaustive primer, however, and you’re fully encouraged to come up with your own Grey Knights colour schemes. Perhaps time in the warp has had a subtle effect on their armour, or the need for secrecy demands they disguise their origins in a protracted campaign!

Next Steps

Once you have a few Combat Patrol games under your belt and you’re ready to take the fight to the daemonic legions of Chaos, you might be wondering where to go next. 

Your first stop is Codex: Grey Knights – the essential companion to the faction, containing plenty of background lore and a showcase of gorgeously painted miniatures, as well as rules for 25 different units and plenty of different ways to play them. Together with a copy of the Warhammer 40,000 Core Book, you’ll have all the rules you need to start playing full-size games of Warhammer 40,000.

The Combat Patrol is an excellent starting point for your army as it gives you a powerful named character and two of the faction’s most important units – the Strike Squad and Brotherhood Terminator Squad – as a dependable infantry core. There is nowhere you can go wrong when expanding this initial force, as adding more numbers, characters, or heavy vehicles will all be useful when starting out.

One of the best things about the core Grey Knights Strike Squad and Terminator model kits is that they contain parts for multiple different units. Paladin Squads are an even more elite variant of your Brotherhood Terminators that use much of the same equipment, but fight with more skill and have different abilities, making them a great addition if you’re a fan of the ultra-heavy Deep Strike style of combat.

Likewise, the Interceptor Squad equips regular Grey Knights Space Marines with a short-ranged teleportation pack that lets them flicker back and forth even faster than a Gate of Infinity allows, ‘shunting’ them back behind cover after launching a devastating fusillade against incoming enemy forces.

Grand Master Voldus is one of the most potent psykers in the Chapter’s history and a battle leader of impressive record, having commanded scores of Grey Knights operations across hundreds of years of service. He’s everything you want from a leader character dialed up to the maximum, and uses his powers to both protect the Terminators he leads and scorch his foes with soulfire.

For all their formidable might, there are foes too strong for even the Grey Knights to handle unassisted, and on such occasions the Chapter’s Techmarines unleash one of their deadliest weapons – the Nemesis Dreadknight. These massive, psychically charged combat walkers allow a single Grey Knight to fight toe-to-toe with Greater Daemons and devastate swathes of lesser enemies, incinerating at range with various heavy weapons while swinging enormous swords, maces, and flails with uncanny grace for a machine of such size.

When ingress by portal is too perilous even for their experienced warriors, the Grey Knights employ many of the armoured transport vehicles found in other Space Marine Chapters. The Stormraven Gunship is perfect for their accelerated style of combat, as it can swoop in, deliver a payload of troops, and then cover their forces with powerful guns and missiles until it’s time to leave.

The iconic Land Raider is also a favourite of the Grey Knights, as its huge size and armoured hull are perfect for delivering significant strike forces through the most perilous of environments. Terminators can charge right down its front-mounted assault ramp and into combat before the enemy can raise their guns in reply.

Fiction

Though the Grey Knights can be found at pivotal moments in history, the fact that their very existence is a secret means almost no tales exist of their heroism – save those that reach the cavernous archives on Titan. Not everything can be kept from prying eyes, however, and amidst the scattered stories that make their way to Black Library, the Grey Knights Omnibus by Ben Counter is a standout trilogy that sees the knights of Titan at their finest.

The three novels contained in the omnibus follow Justicar Alaric as he risks his immortal soul in service to the Grey Knights, battling the very worst of Humanity’s enemies and having his faith tested to its breaking point. It’s the perfect introduction to the faction as a whole, and shows what goes on behind the scenes as the daemon-hunting Space Marines struggle to contain fiendish incursions across an entire galaxy at war.

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