Grand master or Inquisitor?

[Karak the Unfaithful]

Starting a grey knights army but I'm not sure about my HQ, should I take a grand master or an inquisitor?

 

maybe a special character?

[Impactwinter]

Thats a pretty Apples vs. Tomatoes comparison, as even though they are both HQ's they are hugely different in every other way.

 

The Grandmaster is a very powerful beatstick, and he gets access to some truly evil grenade and wargear combo's for relatively little points, but give the Brotherhood Captain a little thought too, he's only very slightly inferior on the statline (-1BS) and gets all the same wargear. True he gives up Grand Strategy, which is very cool but if you need to save points he's still a strong option.

 

I'll leave it to others to discuss the Inquisitors. I like them but rarely try to run them.

 

Also consider the Librarian for some cool powers combos

 

I won't recommend any special characters, I think they are the driving force behind codex creep in 5e.

[XaClocKWorKoX]

the only special character i believe is worth is is coteaz anything other than that its all based off points ( under 1750 or over ) is the depend on what i take.

[bl00d bath76]

Never take a brother captain ever.

 

Grandmaster if you NEED the grand strategy otherwise an inquisitor would do the job. He only puts out 4 attacks on the charge and is not immune to instant death. upgraded this guy can work a lot better but he gets extremely expensive very quickly. (45 point psycannon...)

 

If you don't need grand strategy then get an inquisitor. He is very cheap for what you get and you can run him just like a grand master with terminator armour,deamonhammer and psycannon for only 85 points.

 

He also unlocks a unit of henchmen. This is very usefull as death cult asasins are best dedicated close combat unit in the codex and are cheep. Futhermore the inquisitor can get all the grenades aswell as hammerhand and psychic communion. This leaves a lot more points for other toys in the gk codex.

[Entilzha]

I like the Grand Master but after you start throwing upgrades on him he quickly becomes the cost of a full GKSS. Inquisitor are cheap with decent stat lines and have all sorts of upgrades. Can easily get a good inquisitor for under a 100 points.

 

But honestly me all star HQ has been the Libby. There are so many great powers they can have and are a toolbox for everything. Sanctuary and Shrouding have been been pro every game by giving me that edge up.

[number6]

Never take a brother captain ever.

I don't know about that. 25 pts may not seem like a huge difference in points -- and if you have them to spare, upgrading to a GM might usually be worth it -- but I've been building dozens of lists and 25 pts is a huge deal in most of them. The BC gets you a great HQ character, full stop. There's nothing wrong with him. GK armies don't depend on Grand Strategy to be good, after all. :cuss

 

Every HQ has it's place. You can't ask which one is better than the other because it totally depends on your entire army list. Units -- HQ choices included -- are "good" or "bad" only in the context of an entire army list. Asking whether you should take a GM or an Inquisitor is not an either/or question. Taking a GM will totally determine the army list you are capable of fielding. Same story with the Inquisitor. They are not interchangeable parts.

[bl00d bath76]

I disagree. I cannot see a single situation where you would take a brother-captain...IN MY OPINION...

[Joasht]

I'd almost always pay those 25 points for the upgrade to a GM. If I wanted something cheap I'd take an Inquisitor, if I wanted something slightly more expensive I'd take a Librarian, if I wanted a combat HQ character.......I probably won't because GMs frankly don't have enough attacks to do anything short of killing single targets very well, and even then you have to pray said single target doesn't have a way of one-shotting your Eternal Warrior-less Grandmaster. Perhaps Mordrak, because he gets a ton of cannon fodder built in.

 

The thing is, even if you roll a 1 on Grand Strategy, the ability to give a squad Scoring, Scout or even CounterAttack can change the game entirely. I find it difficult to forgo that just for 25 points.

[Freman Bloodglaive]

The general rule with characters is that they have to offer something to your army to justify their points cost. Librarians are king of the pile in Grey Knights, they're utility characters without peer.

 

Grand Masters with grand strategy offer skills to a handful of squads, although the random 1-3 means you can't rely on it for more than one.

 

Inquisitors are cheap. I mean cheap in, you only have to buy a veteran sergeant to lead your army cheap. If you only want an HQ you can get one for 25 points. If I were playing pure Grey Knights I'd still be very tempted to take a single power armoured Inquisitor to lead them (even if he does look like a Space Marine :tu:).

 

Coteaz is the single best special character. He's not the most powerful (far from it) but he provides a cheapish HQ (same cost as a Brother Champion) and allows access to cheap melta, and cheap Razorback crews for sitting in the backfield. Cheap backup means more points to spend on Purifiers and Paladins.

 

Draigo is... iffy. He's very powerful, and only marginally more expensive than an upgraded Grand Master, but really unlocking troop Paladins isn't that great. They're still too expensive to field a lot of. And he's not particularly mobile (compared to something like a Thunderlord) thanks to terminator armour.

 

Crowe is bad. There's really no other way to describe him. I love the model, his fluff is awesome and I'd still use him to get a Purifier army, but he is not a good HQ. It's that lack of independent character that means I'd turf him. Every other bad thing about him can be tolerated, but having him run around by himself is just... bad.

 

Mordrak is more difficult. Again lack of independent character is a moderate pain, but he does have the option of a nice squad of terminators who protect him from harm. I wouldn't take him because of cost though.

 

As I see it.

 

My first option in a pure Knight army would be a librarian. I wouldn't even look at another HQ until we were past 1500 points. Then I'd look at a Grand Master.

 

In a non pure army I'd look at Coteaz first. He just brings a lot to the table for his small points investment.

[number6]

What? No love for the Brotherhood Champion? :tu: Many of my pure GK army lists are led by this guy. But that's because I'm cheap and haven't yet found myself clever enough to properly abuse Grand Strategy. I also like many many other things in other Force Org slots and can't find myself wanting to give any of them up in order to afford something more expensive than the Champion.

[BrotherWasted]

Grand Strategy all comes down to planning to abuse it with one unit. Two times out of three, you will be able to confer the ability to more units as gravy.

 

I almost always use it to make my Purifiers scoring in objective games or to give them Counter Attack. If I roll 2 or 3 on the D3, the scoring abiliity is confered to my henchmen units or my Dreadknights.

 

If it's not objective games, then my Strike Squads and Purifiers get Counter-Attack. Depending on the army I face, such as Guard, I'll probably make two or three units into Scouts, move my Rhinos up 12" and pop smoke.

[Notanoob]

I'd say go for the Inquisitor. He's cheap as chips, he can wear plain old power armor and thus not worry about finding a ride or attaching to squads, he's got excellent basic stuff like Hammerhand and psycannons, and he opens up henchmen, which can be excellent. The GM on the other hand, needs to find a ride (200+points always, and both have big flaws), DS (risky, although less so in a GK list due to psychic communion and the servo skulls), or footslog it. He'll also want some GKTs/Paladins to rock with, being equipped with power armor. Furthermore, Grand Strategy isn't something you can build an army on due to the D3.