Unit of the Week: Chaplain

[Skywrath]

Welcome to the Grey Knight unit of the Week, where we analyse the Grey Knights units strength's and weaknesses. The unit for this week is the Chaplain. Each week a different unit will appear, with the idea being that we discuss how best to use that model on the battlefield.

 

Questions:

 

1. General first thoughts and impressions of the unit?

 

2. How would you use said unit, to compliment a list, or to build a list around? 

 

3. What other units/strategems synergize with it to give it that extra shine?

 

4. Miscellaneous use/Tips and Tricks?

 

 

BONUS: Creative ways to use units that wouldn't be obvious at first. 

Edited March 27, 2021 by Skywrath

[The Woodsman]

Chaplains are awesome. 'nuff said. 

 

Jokes aside, they really are the epitome of the warrior priest archetype, especially as Grey Knight Chaplains are psykers. I mean they should be frightening. Alas, their combat capability is somewhat lackluster (when compared to Primaris/Codex Marine variants), though the Crozius itself is a pretty solid weapon. 

 

The obvious reason to take them is buffing psiweapons, either with Guidance, Projection or Focus for a hitting buff, range buff or AP buff respectively. Another use, less common but that could be situationally useful is the mortal wound FNP which can help protect say a large unit of Paladins who's multiple wounds and defense mechanisms against shooting make them a prime target for any mortal wound output. As a combat buffer he is often overlooked but he does come with a full re-roll in combat aura for free, and the Words of Power litany grants a damage re-roll on Nemesis weapons, which can really help make the most out of those selfsame Paladins' halberds (albeit it can also be good on Psilencers - however I tend to favor psycannons, so its not as relevant). 

 

What limits him compared to other Chaplains is the fact he can't be a Master of Sanctity, so he's always only doing the one prayer and there's no way to actually improve the "casting" role. When forced to chose between him and a Librarian or Brother-Captain, I'd almost always chose one of the latter. That being said, I think there's a lot to be said for dual Patrol lists these days, so fitting in more than three HQ is definitely doable. In my latest list I've taken a Chaplain with Ethereal Manipulation and the Projection and Focus litanies to have him really help get a lot out of my Purgation squads and Convergence Interceptors. I'll be taking the list out for a spin next week, but I'm confident he'll be decent in his role. 

 

Is he an auto-include in every GK list? I don't think so. Can he situationally be a key part of a solid strategy? Yes, but its good to remember a 3+ can be swingy and you always plan accordingly to the chant not going off. 

 

My 2 cents :) 

(also a picture of my own chaplain for attention and because chaplains are awesome - have I mentioned they're awesome?)
 

[librisrouge]

I love GK Chaplains, in idea and in practice. I very much hope that we get some kind of Master of Sanctity in the new codex.

Woodsman hit the nail on the head with the fact that they are all about the buff you're wanting to give them. It dictates the very roll they're going to have in your force, since you're better off taking literally any other character if you're not using their prayer properly. I'm a fan of either Intonement or Recitation for ranged focused armies (lots of purgation or purifier squads) while both Words and Invocation will take any block of terminators or paladins and just pump them up to the next level. Paladin blocks, in my experience, need to finish of enemies quickly in order to move onto another victim if they're to carry their weight. The chaplain's boosts can easily make the difference between and enemy failing an armor save or not, or whether you roll a 1, and fail to kill a marine, or a 2-3 and finish that traitor off in one blow.

Given their role as a support character, I wouldn't equip them with much in the way of relics. However, if you're using one to boost a melee block, you can't go wrong with Augurium Scrolls to really push that unit into the deadly range.

[eternal_warrior12]

I turned Tarentus into a GK chaplain. Shoulder swap and arm replacement (went well Emperor bless despite less than perfect tools) and boom he’s my favorite character ever.