Grey Knights: What Went Wrong with the Codex Part 2

Hey Matt  Ward, how long does it take you to screw a codex over? Not long from what I see!

On to part 2 of my review of what was done wrong with the Grey Knights Codex. Our focus is in the Inquisition for this installment. Wow, again I would like to state that the Inquisition must have been forced into the Codex at the last minute without much thought. Let's look at how badly damaged Warbands are now.
First we will start with the positive aspect, in the old Demonhunters Codex there was 3 pages for Inquisitorial Henchmen (one page was just base stats and fluff with a huge pic), so we can call it 2. In the new book we get 4 pages. Not bad....

The old book had:

•  Familiar: added +1 imitative and allowed extra psychic powers to be purchased for the second.
• Hierophant: First added +1 LD and made all demons roll difficult ground to assault. The second removed -1 LD from the Demons.
• Acolyte: Could take 15 points of wargear
• Warrior: +1 WS to the Inquisitor, could take Servitors or Guardsmen or other warrior types with assorted weapons (mainly assault weapons and heavy weapon servitors).
• Sage: +1 BS to the Inquisitor, second gave a reroll to hit with shooting,.
• Mystic: Could allow the unit to shoot at deeps striking units within 4d6". Second one allowed you to nominate a unit within 12" to shoot. Now only Cotaez has the power and limited to his unit only. No longer can you nominate.

The new book:

•  Arco-Flagellant: Feel No pain. Basically copied from the SOB army list. Great STR and WS but useless otherwise for the point cost with no armor save. Why buy this guy when there is Death Cult Assassins and Crusaders waiting in the wings?
• Banisher: Aura of Faith that forces re-roll successful invulnerable saves. Not bad. Eviscerator for 15 more points, so 30 points for a one wound guy with STR 6 or STR 8 with Hammerhand, Again a SOB throwback.
• Crusader: Straight from the Witchhunter Codex. Now, a 3+ storm shield and power weapon. WS 4 on top and 15 points. What a deal! Wonder why they are popular???? Hah!
• Daemonhost: Stripped won from 65 points in the prior codex to 10 and don't take up a FOC slot like before. Good idea, but rip out their wounds, at least give them 2! The random chart each turn wasn't changed much and really does not work with a single wound guy like it did with the multi wound model.
• Death Cult Assassin: Wow, another model that once took up a FOC, now with the Warband. A good idea, cheap and just amazing. Pretty much was a cut and paste from the old book. Got rid of a wound, added +1 INT and made them unable to infiltrate as they are part of a squad now.
• Servitor: No longer limited to one plasma cannon, but mind lock now prevents them from being really useful.. Some argue that 2/3 of the time they will work if there is not an IC in there to keep them in line. I don't like those risks. My luck, the critial roll will be the deathblow.
• Jokaero: Aptly named if you ask me. Let's take an Obliterator and make it cheaper and crappier with some weird rules. Now, these guys can work in limited applications but you have to be prepared to take the bad with it. They suck in combat, really, Tau can kick their ass., 
• Mystic: Deep Strike within 6" and you don't scatter. Hey, it's called a Teleport homer! Duh! Except they left them out of the codex...
• Psyker: An interested introduction for this one, could be powerful with high STR and AP large blast. Crappy leadership at 8, so 1 out of 3 tries will fail. Cheap and makes up for missing blasts from the rest of the codex.
• Warriors: Cheap! Limited by the # special weapons you can take. I can deal with that just like before, you could only have 3 of any type and this time only limited here. You can take more of the others. Warriors and Acolytes from before are rolled up into one batch now.  Lots of options, yet many missing like: Lasgun (free swap for pistolr or CCW), Shotgun (free swap), oddly you can take a bolter for 1 point but NO BOLT PISTOL! They removed some possible models that many people had in their collection and also made everything the same price when it comes to a flamer, melta, plasma or grenade launcher. There has always been a price difference in most books and just amuses me that people would consider taking a Grenade Launcher or a Flamer over a melta or plasma gun. Really, let's thing about it. Unless you know your playing against a horde list, useless.

So, we see a few steps in the right direction, then Matt just said, meh! Tossing everything into the book without much more than a casual thought. Some serious thought should have went into the book more. Mystics should have been left alone not turned into craptastic beacons. Points should have been balanced some to help keep things in line also with other books. An improvement, but not much of one as most was copied from Witchunters and modified if at all.