Grey Knight PSYBOLTS

So what’s the deal with psybolts?

I’m not talking about the most obvious use of loading them up on razorbacks, dreads, and land raiders for a token five points, but rather putting them on the rank and file Grey Knights. The internet has completely dismissed this option as a waste of points and not effective.

Perhaps.

Depends on your build- and let’s talk about the build and why one WOULD upgrade to the psybolt ammo on true grit style storm bolters. For spam-knights the upgrade is a waste, so much so that a causal flip through the codex makes this obvious. If you are taking a min-max ‘knight squad you are upgrading how many storm bolters for the points- one, since the other four guys are toting psycannons.

BUT, if you are taking a full ten marine ‘Knight squad then spreading out the points even with two of them being psy-cannons the upgrade becomes a bit more reasonable. The very fact that we have this options shows the coolness of the codex.

Fritz digression here for a moment…

Previous codex you had your stock Grey Knights and you had to like it. Expensive right out of the gate, you were forced to play an elite army, and as the newer ‘dexes came out, the army was harder and harder to play just on weight of numbers since you had no wiggle room with the ‘knights. NOW, we have options. You can spend a few more points than a codex marine and put that down on the table, something in the middle, or something totally elite with psybolts, halberds, etc. Of course the more “elite” you go, the more you have to know what you are doing since each loss is huge.

So why psybolts on the rank and file guys?

S5 increases your all around threat range. Stop looking at each ‘knight unit as just a buy in to get psycannons on the table. Sure, psycannons are the bomb, but we want every marine to be pulling down something, and S5 is a step in that directions. Against our fellow battle brothers we are wounding them on a 3+, and against most xeno races a 2+. What isn’t to like? Against light vehicles, other than the GK flavor we have a chance to at least suppress them. Sure I’m planning on having my psycannons explode them, but it’s nice to have a little backup when the dice gods whiff the psycannons.

Psybolt storm bolter also increase the combat effectiveness (CE) of your units, which is HUGE for small elite armies.

What is CE?

It’s the start of the game and I have a full squad of ten knights with psycannons, and psy-storm bolters. I’m dishing out the pain, and taking losses. Eventually when I get down to five or so marines the effectiveness of the unit starts to drop. I’m potentially killing less and less each round, till I get down to one or two marines. At this point my two guys really can’t effect the game in terms of killing so it’s time to run off and hide, hop in that land raider, and stay alive to keep the unit scoring.

Now with psybolts I’m retaining that killing potential a bit more so when I’m down to five or so marines my CE is still good to go for another turn. Important with elite armies since I have so few models to begin with- I need to milk all I can out of them.

Which as an aside, how do you “beat” elite armies even quicker? Especially important given the resurgence of Deathwing all around? What is the normal SOP of 40K? Shoot a unit till it’s dead and then move on. With elite armies you just have to drop down their CE first and then move on from there. Get the unit to the point where it can’t influence the game, and move on.

Oh, and just as an FYI- operation monkey spam is a GO GO GO!