Grand Master: One thing that seems great about this guy's statline is his BS6. Unfortunately, he wont be using it much. He walks around with Psyk-Out Grenades which is awesome since it'll drop Mephiston in a hurry. But, notice that as good as a GM is in Assault, he can't Sweeping Advance because he's in Terminator Armour, which is incredibly annoying. But his real bonus over a Brother-Captain is
Grand Strategy. Incredibly broken or totally crap, depending on your army build.
Hammer of Righteousness: This is kind of good, since it applies to Shooting attacks as well. And Grey Knights love extra shooting.
Shield of Blades: If it's good enough for Space Wolves, it's good enough for Grey Knights. Works best on units with Halberds.
Spear of Light: Not that good. Since
Scouts specifies a 'Normal' move and the FAQ says that it doesn't work with Dreadknights' Personal Teleporter, and Grand Strategies (any of them) can't be given to vehicles which means Stormravens don't get it, etc. Seems good, but isn't.
Unyielding Anvil: Potentially the best use of Grand Strategy. Since it takes away the need for taking lots of Troops and focusing on killy-things in Elites and Heavy Support. However, by needing to take this you've already shown that you haven't built a 'proper' list to begin with.
I found that Hammer of Righteousness was the best use of Grand Strategy. If only because I didn't generally take a lot of Paladins or non-Troops because Strike Squads are fine. If you want more Paladins or Purifiers, there's always Draigo and Crowe respectively, and those guys aren't random. If anything was made to be Scoring, it was usually Purgation Squads.
Anyway, we're done with that. Grand Master Wargear;
Incinerator; Always upgrade to this. It's only 5 points. And cover-busting is always a problem for shooty armies.
Psilencer; Junk.
Psycannon; I know, I know. The GM has BS6. But why bother paying 45 points for something you're already going to have on pretty much
every other unit you own.
Sword; Gives you a 3+ Invulnerable in Assault. Pretty lackluster considering the other choices. If you need to save points, on the other hand, dropping whatever you've got and going back to the regular sword isn't the worst move you could make.
Halberd; Who needs Invulnerables when everything is already dead? Initiative 7 is amazing. Don't let anyone ever say anything different.
Hammer; You're I5 normally. Don't let it go to waste. Use the squad you're with to use Hammers instead.
Falchions; Meh. Not bad. More attacks with Force Weapons isn't bad. But you don't have the I7 of a Halberd to kill things first and you can't Hammerhand into a Force Weapon (unless you pay for it!). But should still have the same price tag as the Halberd. Not really worth it. Better than a Hammer though.
Stave; Sometimes worth it. Sometimes not. Like I said with the Halberd; You don't need to take saves when nothing can hit you because they're dead.
Servo Skulls; Infiltration denial is nice. Scout denial is even better (Baal Preds). Deep Strike accuracy is helpful, but not important because Knights don't really have a lot of 'good' Deep Strikers. Same with Blast accuracy.
Blind Grenades, Meltabombs, Digital Weapons; Sometimes useful, sometimes not. The 'most useful' are Blind Grenades.
Psybolt Ammunition; I don't like paying 50 points for a Psycannon I've already got elsewhere for about half the cost (which means two Psycannons, if you're counting).
Empyrean Brain Maines; One third the cost of a Warding Stave. Works about a third of the time too. A Warding Stave still isn't worth it.
Psychotroke Grenades; Incredibly useful. But in a Grey Knights' army points are at a premium and you don't want to waste points where you don't have to.
Rad Grenades; Takes the pressure off of Hammerhand and the risk of rolling Perils. Also helps you smush things, unlike Psychotrokes which just stop things from smushing you. You should be I7, they should be T3/2, you've got this in the bag.
Orbital Strike Relay; Hnnng. No. It ignores your BS6. Only for 2500+ games or bigger where points shaving isn't a concern.
Master-Crafting; Only Master-Craft the cheap stuff. Swords, Halberds and Incinerators.
Brother-Captain: Everything that applies to the Grand Master applies here. On a Grand Master you pay 25 points for Grand Strategy. If you don't need Grand Strategy (hint; you don't), there is nothing a Grand Master can do that a Bro-Captain couldn't. BS6=>5 is irrelevant since you're using Incinerators - hopefully. Besides, the Brother-Captain is your Bro. The Grand Master is not.
Brotherhood Champion: Largely nowhere near as good as a Brother-Captain. He's cheap, sure. But he's also weirdly bad. I just got confused when I read the entry. He has one Wound and less attacks. Just...Bad.
Librarian: Knocks every other Marine Librarian out of the park. Begins as an Epistolary and Terminator Armour,
and gets to keep his Frag and Krak Grenades. As well as all the Grey Knight gubbins to boot. By rights he should be at
least 175 points. But he's not. Thanks Ward.
Sword; Yeah. Sure. But wouldn't you just rather dig it in to those other Marine players a little bit more...
Halberd; I6 Force Weapons are not bad. Anybody who thinks otherwise probably shouldn't be playing the game.
Falchions; A Librarian doesn't have many attacks as WS5 isn't quite as good as the GM/BC's. But WS5 is still good. Extra attacks on somebody who needs them isn't a terrible investment.
Psybolt Ammunition; You're only BS4 with a Storm Bolter. Not worth it.
Digital Weapons; Sometimes useful, sometimes not. It's what Hammerhand is for, generally. Go ahead and pay for it if you don't plan on using Hammerhand much - if at all - since a squad can do it.
Empyrean Brain Mines; Not as good as a Brother-Captain in combat and has less wounds. So are even more important to have on a Librarian.
Teleport Homer; Better in concert with a Brother-Captain with
Psychic Communion, otherwise not quite as good. Also costs as much as all three Servo Skulls which is probably a better investment for Infiltration and Scout denial on top.
Dark Excommunication; No.
Might of Titan; You've already got Hammerhand, and hopefully a couple of Hammers in a unit. Good for the Armour Penetration, but you should really have something else that fills that roll.
Quicksilver; Can be useful against some armies. But Halberds are fairly cheap and going first is going first, whether it's I6 or I10. Only take this if your meta-game is lousy with Dark Eldar. Otherwise I6 on Halberds will get you through most problems.
Sanctuary; Can help you shoot a little bit longer. But if anyone's Assaulting, it should be Grey Knights.
Shrouding; ALWAYS TAKE.
Summoning; Useful with a Teleport Homer, but that makes this power cost 20 points instead of the usual 5. Not really worth it.
Vortex of Doom; Good, because you've already got Terminator Armour and Servo Skills don't cost a whole lot of points.
Warp Rift; For 5 points. Seriously. Sometimes I read new Codecies and there are always maybe one or two options where I swear someone was drunk when they wrote it.
Shrouding and Warp Rift and the two best ones. Just in case you didn't pick up on that. If you want to pay through the nose for Mastery Level 3, Might of Titan or Sanctuary are okay Powers.
Master-Crafting; A Librarian has less attacks and not 'amazing' Weapon Skill. For 5 points its always worth considering a MC'd Sword or Halberd, and it's roughly the same effect as Falchions for half the cost. Although you could MC those too...If you didn't like having points to spare for some reason.
Ordo Malleus Inquisitor: Waaay too many options. Most of them bad. So here's what's good. Keep 'em cheap, expect them to die.
Combi-Flamer, Combi-Melta, Daemonblade,
two Daemonblades, Servo Skulls (optional), Brain Mines (never optional).
Basically, they're cheap ways to get the 1+ HQ annoyance out of the way without having to spend 150+ points in a small game on one model. In smaller games, Inquisitors are invaluable. In large games they're for min-maxers.
You can always have him in the 'Chuck Norris' pose with a Combi-Flamer in one hand and a Combi-Melta in the other.
Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor: Combi-Flamer, Combi-Melta, Null Rod. Servo Skulls (optional). The only reason you'd take a Hereticus Inquisitor over any of the others is for either the Null Rod (as it's also a Power Weapon when it's not doing anything) or the Psyocculum. Null Rod is fine, Psyocculum on the other hand is not.
Ordo Xenos Inquisitor: Combi-Flamer, Combi-Melta (I sense a theme), Needle Pistol (AP2, what!?). Servo Skulls (optional).
Ulumeathi Plasma Syphon; Plasma is the bane of Marines and Terminators especially. You're Grey Knights which means you probably have a lot of one or the other or both. Also pretty much negates the entire Tau army. Ward hates Tau. Or something.
Rad Grenades; Far, far, far cheaper to get them here than on a Brother-Captain.
Psychotroke Grenades; Always to be considered, but Rad Grenades are better and you can't really afford to get both.
Remember kids, Inquisitors are Independent Characters and are allowed to run around in real Grey Knight units. In fact it's actually worse attaching them to a Warband (which we'll cover later). If you really, really, really need
Psychic Communion and can't afford a GM/BC, it can often help that an Inquisitor wont usually be in Terminator Armour for Transport purposes.
Because you're like that and I know you want to know;
Xenos => Malleus => Hereticus.
Why Grey Knights have access to Xenos and Hereticus Inquisitors I don't know, but that's how the game works. And Xenos Inquisitors are awesome so quit complaining.