DarkLink
07-15-2012, 06:07 PM
Overall, I think GKs broke even with the transition to 6th. Some powerful stuff (razorback spam/Fortitude) got nerfed, and other stuff got buffed, but overall it seems like GKs were designed as much for 6th as for 5th.
Some specific units have changed a little bit, so let’s talk about that. I’ll only cover the stuff I have experience with, so there will be a few units left out. If I don’t mention a unit, it’s either because I don’t have any experience to go off of, or the unit is so obviously crappy I won’t even mention it. Brother Captains, for example, are exactly like Grand Masters except inferior in every way due to the lack of The Grand Strategy, so you should always take a GM. Techmarines, on the other hand, I’ve never used, so I won’t say anything about them.
HQ’s
Grand Master/Driago/Mordrack
Still my top choice. They’re beasts in assault, particularly thanks to challenges (which I’ll talk about later), and bring plenty of buffs through various means. Mordrack in particular got a buff, since Hammers on beefy HQs are pretty awesome now and more reliable reserves means that you can reliably bring in other units to back Mordrack up wherever you deepstrike him.
The improvements to reserves, along with The Grand Strategy (scout) and Psychic Communion mean I’m probably going to be reserving something every game to pop out of nowhere and hit my opponent from awkward angles. A Strike Squad coming out of nowhere and hiding behind cover a few inches away from a bunch of Long Fangs is going to mess with my opponent’s battle plan quite a bit, and can be a huge game changer.
Librarians
I’m not a big fan, as you’re paying a lot of points for some small buffs and a not-as-killy-as-a-GM character, but he’s still got a lot of useful abilities. The access to the BRB powers is pretty nice as well. Psychic defenses overall are weaker due to the psychic hood nerf, and the fact that your opponent only gets Deny the Witch against very few of your powers. Nidz, Eldar, and Space Wolves are the only armies that didn’t lose psychic defense. Shrouding (cover saves) and assault both got weaker in general, though, slightly reducing the utility of the Librarian, so I have to say it’s overall a slight nerf.
Brotherhood Champion/Crowe
The changes to AP and their 2+ armor actually buffed these guys pretty well. Champions are still overpriced and underpowered due to 1 wound and a very low number of attacks, but Crowe is more worth it now. I might actually try him out, though the old Purifier/Razorback spam list was nerfed. Purifiers are still good, but not quite as good as they were.
Inquisitors/Coteaz
There are still only two viable Inquisitor builds; Ordos Malleus with Terminator armor and a Psycannon, or Ordos Xenos with Rad/Psykotroke grenades. They’re cheap and effective, and you can buy them a Force Weapon for a free psychic power. The Divination standard power, reroll all to-hits, is well worth the upgrade. Now you’ve got a cheap HQ that does everything it did before, but can now access better buffing powers.
Coteaz is now even more of a beast. In addition to all the useful abilities he had before, he can get two rulebook powers. Take the divination reroll to hit, and one other power, and he’s an awesome support character. Or keep Sanctuary if you’re facing ‘nidz or Orks. His 2+ armor and Hammer are a big deal now, as well, and his lack of invulnerable save doesn’t matter nearly as much, so he’s better in assault as well. Coteaz was good before, but 6th he’s not only a better fighter but he’s gained a few more useful psychic buff powers to go with it. Best 100pt HQ in the entire game, hands down.
Elites:
Purifiers
These guys got nerfed in a couple of ways. First, Razorback spam isn’t so great anymore, and the main reason anyone whined about Purifiers in the first place was due to how efficiently they did Razorback spam.
Because vehicles are more vulnerable, Purifiers are more vulnerable because they get less protection from their transports. Get into a firefight, and you’ll take casualties more quickly than before, and Purifiers are actually fairly fragile. Since the rapid fire changes gave most opponents better 24” range firepower, Purifiers will be taking more hits and dropping just a little more quickly.
Cleansing Flame also suffers from being one of the few powers that grants Deny the Witch, plus multi-charges have been nerfed and the removal of No Retreat means you can’t stack so many wounds on Fearless hordes anymore. Cleansing Flame is still powerful against horde units, but it’s much weaker than it previously was.
So, Purifiers are still a solid unit, but they’ve been slightly nerfed in multiple ways. Combined with the vehicle nerf, and I think you’ll be seeing fewer Purifier spam lists overall. These guys are now more of a quality specialty unit than an amazing troop choice.
Ven. Dreadnought
Venerables got a huge nerf, overall. Very expensive, and you can’t reroll away damage results. I see a lot fewer of these being taken, though there might still be a few here or there and they will still probably all be psyrifle Dreadnoughts.
Paladins
These guys are contentious; with people convince that Look Out Sir is a huge buff. Never mind that LO,S is simply a much less reliable version of last editions wound allocation shenanigans. It’s actually a nerf here, though there are some small benefits you can get.
Being Characters with Precision Shots is a nice buff. Not super reliable, since most stuff still usually gets armor saves and you need 6’s to hit and 6’s to rend and etc, but it can be a nice boost.
CC is a mixed bag. On one hand, Paladins are even more unkillable than before. Only your power fists can really hurt them, and they can potentially challenge you to kill off the fist. That cuts both ways, though, and now Paladins have to take a bunch of Hammers if they want to kill Terminators effectively, making THSS Terminators a bit more effective against Paladins.
Overall, though, assault was nerfed. Multicharges are weaker, and it’s easier for your opponent to regroup. Since Paladins can’t Sweeping Advance, that means you’re stuck either killing only one unit at a time, or even if you do assault multiple units you’ll just win combat, then the enemy will run away, rally, and be back in your face to shoot you the next turn. Whereas before a unit of Paladins could multi-charge an entire army and slaughter everything and chase what remained off the board, you can’t do that anymore. No longer does assault remove multiple units at a time.
6th ed overall has hurt Deathstars for this reason, I think. Expensive units can really only shoot one thing, then assault one thing, and only score one objective as well. It’s more difficult for one unit to destroy the enemy army, it’s more difficult for one unit to take a lot of shots and it’s more difficult for one unit to camp objectives for the win. Deathstars are still nasty, but you have to bring a bit more balanced list. So, like Purifiers, Paladins are still a solid unit (and actually are even nastier one-on-one), but their overall role has changed to be more of a specialist unit than the core of your army. I think there will be fewer all-out Driagowing lists with only like three killpoints or whatever craziness, but you'll still see Paladins as a centerpiece assault unit.
Paladins both benefit and suffer from challenges, but again, I’ll talk about that later. I will mention it’s possible to tie up a deathstar using Challenges, so a smart player can do even more to limit the effect a deathstar unit has on the battle, which is another nerf to deathstars in general. I’ll go into more detail with that.
Henchmen
I’m honestly not sure what to think of these guys. Bolter Acolytes are pretty awesome now. Take a bunch, and sit them in cover to take potshots for a super cheap scoring unit that isn’t expensive or threatening enough for your opponent to really care about.
DCA have been nerfed against Terminators, so they’re no longer the unstoppable tip of the spear they once were, but they’re still nasty against everything else. And since they have a “pair of power weapons”, you can model for advantage here. Nice job, GW, with your ‘not intended for competitive play’ game. Brilliant work. Overall nerf, though.
Crusaders aren’t bad, no 3++ is, and they can take an ax for +1 str, but they can still get punched to death due to T3.
Servitors and Jokearo can both bring decent fire support, but they’re both mediocre due to their expense and mindlock, not to mention BS3.
Overall, henchmen still have some nice options, but with the nerf of Razorback spam and power weapons I think you’ll see fewer acolyte spam, making them another specialist unit rather than a core choice. This is nice because it makes Coteaz less ridiculous, even though he is still awesome.
Troops
Terminators
AP rules are a huge buff. They don’t suffer from the mixed bag of Look Out Sir and Character units and all that stuff going on with Paladins. Terminators overall are better. This is a solid unit that can take a lot of firepower, especially in assault, and do a lot of damage.
Strike Squads
These are some of the most efficient firepower in the codex. A couple of psycannons and lots of storm bolters with psybolts, for cheap, makes an awesome unit in 6th. 6th is less about hiding in transports and more about running around shooting stuff, and GKSS are very efficient scoring fire support units.
They’re weaker in CC than other GK units, so they’re more of a backline, but I think these guys will be a bit more common. Use them as a firing line to back up your Terminator/Paladins, and hide some Purifiers in there to pick off enemy assault units and mobs, but either way GKSS will make a solid scoring core to your army while your specialist units go out and do their job.
Fast Attack
Interceptors
These are everything that Strike Squads are, but super-duper fast. As I said, the vehicle nerf means that infantry shooting means more, and anything that can pull that off while remaining highly mobile just got awesome. They didn’t get directly buffed, though Hammer of Wrath is a nice, if mostly useless, little ability, but the change in the meta is very favorable for these guys. I already took them a lot, now I’ll probably always take a squad.
Storm Ravens
Let me just go on record saying that the flyer rules are stupid. Flyers and skyfire is far too imbalanced between codices. Some armies are screwed, and other armies can bring the pain. Imagine facing 9 Valkyrie/Vendettas or a Necron army with maxed out flyers. That thought is literally the only time in all the years I’ve played 40k that I have ever decided that I would refuse to play the dick that brought that list. And how much do you bet that GW will wait until they’ve sold a ton of flyers before FAQing flakk missiles into every codex?
Storm Ravens at least are limited to three per army and are super expensive. They’re nasty gunships, and they’ll do a lot of damage to an enemy army. Flyers are a bit questionable as transports, because if they crash anything inside is basically dead, but Storm Ravens can pack in a lot of firepower so you don’t really need to use them as a transport. Maybe hide a cheap unit of Acolytes in there to drop on an objective late game, or something.
Heavy Support
This still suffers from the problem in 5th, where a handful of choices outweighs the majority, but 6th has balanced things out a bit.
Land Raiders
Land Raiders are a bit more viable, in that weaker transports have been nerfed. Where Rhinos fail, Land Raiders can still deliver a unit into assault effectively, though they’re fragile enough that they’re still tough to justify.
Dreadnoughts
Dreadnoughts have changed. On one hand, vehicle rules make CC Dreadnoughts much weaker, which means that if you do see a Dreadnought it’s even more likely to be a psyrifle Dread. On the other hand, weaker vehicles means you’ll probably see fewer psyrifle Dreads, both because they’re more fragile themselves, but also because they’re optimal against light vehicles. Psyrifle Dreads are really good at killing vehicles, but they’re actually very mediocre at everything else. In 5th, that didn’t matter, because light vehicle spam was king. Now, though, with fewer vehicles psyrifle Dread spammers will find that these guys are not particularly good against infantry, and thus they will be spammed less. Other than Storm Ravens, though, they are about the only means of reasonably hurting flyers, so people will still take some. I seriously doubt you’ll see any more lists with 6+ Dreadnoughts, though.
Purgation Squads
Purgation squads are still just inefficient versions of other GK units, but if Dreadnoughts become less common you might see more because they can still pack in pretty good firepower.
Nemesis Dreadknight
Still very, very expensive and very, very fragile, but I’d expect to see more Dreadknights. They’re str 10 now, they smash vehicles thanks to always hitting on a 3+ or better, they can challenge so you don’t have to worry about Power Fists, 2+ armor got buffed, and fewer transports means that their guns will have greater effect. And they cause Fear, which is just plain cool. But since there’s less competition in the Heavy slot and these guys got buffed, they just became a very solid choice.
That said, they’re still easy to shoot to death. You need to be careful using these guys, or they’ll be shot to death before being useful. I would hide them behind something for the first few turns, then at the opportune moment charge out and start smashing stuff. Timed well, and they’ll be a huge thorn in your opponent’s side. Timed poorly, and you just wasted ~250pts.
Here are some other changes that affect the codex as a whole:
Psychic Defenses
GKs got improved psychic defenses, and since almost all of their powers are Blessings now only Eldar, Space Wolves, and sometimes ‘nidz can resist their powers. Net win for GKs. Other than the Librarian (and cleansing flame), no GK unit actually relies on its psychic powers to win, but they’re nice bonuses. Those bonuses just got a little better, and on top of that the generic psychic powers give some GK units a few extra options that are quite nice.
GK’s psychic defenses also improved. Not only do we get the Aegis, and not only do we also get Deny the Witch, but since basically everything is a psyker we get a 5+ Deny the Witch. Our opponent is at -1 ld, we get a 5+ to ignore it, which works out to a mere 55% chance of pulling of a psychic power targeting GKs on ld 10. That’s pretty solid.
Challenges
Staves just got awesome. Take a stave on everything, and if you run into a nasty HQ you can challenge and just tank him the whole game. Or you can guarantee killing that SM sergeant before he ever gets to smash any poor little Grey Knights in your squad.
HQs benefit as well. Take a hammer on a Grand Master, and put him in a unit with a Stave. Then, no matter what you face, you can either use the GM to smash them with the hammer, or use the Stave to tank them while the GM goes to town on the squad.
This leads to a problem that I’ve had several times now, though. I played a SW player who took Wolf Guard in Terminator armor and used them as squad leaders. After I’d killed all of the Grey Hunters, I was still stuck in a challenge with my Warding Stave and his Terminator armor, neither of us able to pierce the 2+ armor with a mere 2-3 attacks per turn.
This can mean your expensive GKs are tied up a few extra turns in assault. This can be good for you, if you tie up certain enemy deathstars, but a smart opponent can also do this to your Paladins. Imagine a 1000pt unit tied up for an extra turn or two because one Wolf Guard in Terminator armor decided to sacrifice himself.
So be careful about when you issue and accept challenges, and remember the rules for Intervention, or whatever that rule is called. You can use the rules to your advantage, but they can also be used against you as well.
Weapon Loadouts
Psycannons are still the king of the guns. Psilencers are crap, and Incinerators are decent, but have so many limitations compared to Psycannons that it’s an easy choice. Psybolts are even better now, though, because anti-infantry shooting is more important and glancing hits on vehicles are more dangerous.
Wargear is different, though. Staves are even more awesome, while Hammers are simultaneously more and less useful. On a Justicar, they’re worthless because your opponent can challenge and kill it before you get to hit. You also don’t need them to kill Dreadnoughts anymore, either. But you do need them to inflict AP2 wounds.
Other NFWs are still the same. Halberds are best on everything other than GKSS and Interceptors, where you want Swords because they’re cheap. Then take your Stave, and one or two Hammers as desired, and you’re done. Just try and keep the points down.
Vehicle rules
GKs were great at the light vehicle spam game, but that's not the way to go anymore. GKs are also, however, great at the mobile infantry firepower game, though. Storm Bolter spam for the win.
It's tough to say exactly how much the vehicle rules have changed the meta. There will be fewer transports, but vehicles still have impressive firepower, so it'll be interesting to see how it turn out. GKs make very solid foot lists, though, so this isn't a bad turn for them.
Non-linear warfare
Reserves, outflanking, and deepstrike all got buffed. Through various means, GKs have widespread access to these things. This is good for us. Reserves come in earlier, more reliably, and warlord traits and psychic powers grant wider access to means of manipulating reserves. You can have units show up suddenly in places your opponent didn’t expect.
For example, outflank 10 GKSS. They’ll almost certainly come in turn 2. Walk on somewhere your opponent doesn’t have the firepower to kill them with immediately, and start shooting. You’ll do a lot of damage, and your opponent will have to dedicate a significant amount of resources to killing them. Doing this against the right opponent in the right place at the right time can easily win you the game.
GKs are very good at playing the reserve game. We can choose to have units popping out of nowhere, all over the board, and catch the opponent by surprise in multiple places from multiple directions at once. Start using reserves more.
This is also another big reason to take a Grand Master.
Flyers
Stupid flyers.
Ok, you need lots of firepower to kill flyers. That means lots of psycannons (nothing new), and possibly a number of psyrifle Dreads. Not too many, for reasons I mentioned earlier, but you might still need some.
And, of course, we have the Storm Raven. We can take our own flyer, one that’s a pretty impressive gunship. You might also want to trick it out for shooting down other flyers so you have the option.
And that’s about all you can do. Be happy, though, a lot of armies are a lot worse off.
We are pretty good against Flying Monstrous Creatures, though. We have more than enough shots to force grounding tests, and once they’re down on the ground they’re not particularly difficult to deal with.
Some specific units have changed a little bit, so let’s talk about that. I’ll only cover the stuff I have experience with, so there will be a few units left out. If I don’t mention a unit, it’s either because I don’t have any experience to go off of, or the unit is so obviously crappy I won’t even mention it. Brother Captains, for example, are exactly like Grand Masters except inferior in every way due to the lack of The Grand Strategy, so you should always take a GM. Techmarines, on the other hand, I’ve never used, so I won’t say anything about them.
HQ’s
Grand Master/Driago/Mordrack
Still my top choice. They’re beasts in assault, particularly thanks to challenges (which I’ll talk about later), and bring plenty of buffs through various means. Mordrack in particular got a buff, since Hammers on beefy HQs are pretty awesome now and more reliable reserves means that you can reliably bring in other units to back Mordrack up wherever you deepstrike him.
The improvements to reserves, along with The Grand Strategy (scout) and Psychic Communion mean I’m probably going to be reserving something every game to pop out of nowhere and hit my opponent from awkward angles. A Strike Squad coming out of nowhere and hiding behind cover a few inches away from a bunch of Long Fangs is going to mess with my opponent’s battle plan quite a bit, and can be a huge game changer.
Librarians
I’m not a big fan, as you’re paying a lot of points for some small buffs and a not-as-killy-as-a-GM character, but he’s still got a lot of useful abilities. The access to the BRB powers is pretty nice as well. Psychic defenses overall are weaker due to the psychic hood nerf, and the fact that your opponent only gets Deny the Witch against very few of your powers. Nidz, Eldar, and Space Wolves are the only armies that didn’t lose psychic defense. Shrouding (cover saves) and assault both got weaker in general, though, slightly reducing the utility of the Librarian, so I have to say it’s overall a slight nerf.
Brotherhood Champion/Crowe
The changes to AP and their 2+ armor actually buffed these guys pretty well. Champions are still overpriced and underpowered due to 1 wound and a very low number of attacks, but Crowe is more worth it now. I might actually try him out, though the old Purifier/Razorback spam list was nerfed. Purifiers are still good, but not quite as good as they were.
Inquisitors/Coteaz
There are still only two viable Inquisitor builds; Ordos Malleus with Terminator armor and a Psycannon, or Ordos Xenos with Rad/Psykotroke grenades. They’re cheap and effective, and you can buy them a Force Weapon for a free psychic power. The Divination standard power, reroll all to-hits, is well worth the upgrade. Now you’ve got a cheap HQ that does everything it did before, but can now access better buffing powers.
Coteaz is now even more of a beast. In addition to all the useful abilities he had before, he can get two rulebook powers. Take the divination reroll to hit, and one other power, and he’s an awesome support character. Or keep Sanctuary if you’re facing ‘nidz or Orks. His 2+ armor and Hammer are a big deal now, as well, and his lack of invulnerable save doesn’t matter nearly as much, so he’s better in assault as well. Coteaz was good before, but 6th he’s not only a better fighter but he’s gained a few more useful psychic buff powers to go with it. Best 100pt HQ in the entire game, hands down.
Elites:
Purifiers
These guys got nerfed in a couple of ways. First, Razorback spam isn’t so great anymore, and the main reason anyone whined about Purifiers in the first place was due to how efficiently they did Razorback spam.
Because vehicles are more vulnerable, Purifiers are more vulnerable because they get less protection from their transports. Get into a firefight, and you’ll take casualties more quickly than before, and Purifiers are actually fairly fragile. Since the rapid fire changes gave most opponents better 24” range firepower, Purifiers will be taking more hits and dropping just a little more quickly.
Cleansing Flame also suffers from being one of the few powers that grants Deny the Witch, plus multi-charges have been nerfed and the removal of No Retreat means you can’t stack so many wounds on Fearless hordes anymore. Cleansing Flame is still powerful against horde units, but it’s much weaker than it previously was.
So, Purifiers are still a solid unit, but they’ve been slightly nerfed in multiple ways. Combined with the vehicle nerf, and I think you’ll be seeing fewer Purifier spam lists overall. These guys are now more of a quality specialty unit than an amazing troop choice.
Ven. Dreadnought
Venerables got a huge nerf, overall. Very expensive, and you can’t reroll away damage results. I see a lot fewer of these being taken, though there might still be a few here or there and they will still probably all be psyrifle Dreadnoughts.
Paladins
These guys are contentious; with people convince that Look Out Sir is a huge buff. Never mind that LO,S is simply a much less reliable version of last editions wound allocation shenanigans. It’s actually a nerf here, though there are some small benefits you can get.
Being Characters with Precision Shots is a nice buff. Not super reliable, since most stuff still usually gets armor saves and you need 6’s to hit and 6’s to rend and etc, but it can be a nice boost.
CC is a mixed bag. On one hand, Paladins are even more unkillable than before. Only your power fists can really hurt them, and they can potentially challenge you to kill off the fist. That cuts both ways, though, and now Paladins have to take a bunch of Hammers if they want to kill Terminators effectively, making THSS Terminators a bit more effective against Paladins.
Overall, though, assault was nerfed. Multicharges are weaker, and it’s easier for your opponent to regroup. Since Paladins can’t Sweeping Advance, that means you’re stuck either killing only one unit at a time, or even if you do assault multiple units you’ll just win combat, then the enemy will run away, rally, and be back in your face to shoot you the next turn. Whereas before a unit of Paladins could multi-charge an entire army and slaughter everything and chase what remained off the board, you can’t do that anymore. No longer does assault remove multiple units at a time.
6th ed overall has hurt Deathstars for this reason, I think. Expensive units can really only shoot one thing, then assault one thing, and only score one objective as well. It’s more difficult for one unit to destroy the enemy army, it’s more difficult for one unit to take a lot of shots and it’s more difficult for one unit to camp objectives for the win. Deathstars are still nasty, but you have to bring a bit more balanced list. So, like Purifiers, Paladins are still a solid unit (and actually are even nastier one-on-one), but their overall role has changed to be more of a specialist unit than the core of your army. I think there will be fewer all-out Driagowing lists with only like three killpoints or whatever craziness, but you'll still see Paladins as a centerpiece assault unit.
Paladins both benefit and suffer from challenges, but again, I’ll talk about that later. I will mention it’s possible to tie up a deathstar using Challenges, so a smart player can do even more to limit the effect a deathstar unit has on the battle, which is another nerf to deathstars in general. I’ll go into more detail with that.
Henchmen
I’m honestly not sure what to think of these guys. Bolter Acolytes are pretty awesome now. Take a bunch, and sit them in cover to take potshots for a super cheap scoring unit that isn’t expensive or threatening enough for your opponent to really care about.
DCA have been nerfed against Terminators, so they’re no longer the unstoppable tip of the spear they once were, but they’re still nasty against everything else. And since they have a “pair of power weapons”, you can model for advantage here. Nice job, GW, with your ‘not intended for competitive play’ game. Brilliant work. Overall nerf, though.
Crusaders aren’t bad, no 3++ is, and they can take an ax for +1 str, but they can still get punched to death due to T3.
Servitors and Jokearo can both bring decent fire support, but they’re both mediocre due to their expense and mindlock, not to mention BS3.
Overall, henchmen still have some nice options, but with the nerf of Razorback spam and power weapons I think you’ll see fewer acolyte spam, making them another specialist unit rather than a core choice. This is nice because it makes Coteaz less ridiculous, even though he is still awesome.
Troops
Terminators
AP rules are a huge buff. They don’t suffer from the mixed bag of Look Out Sir and Character units and all that stuff going on with Paladins. Terminators overall are better. This is a solid unit that can take a lot of firepower, especially in assault, and do a lot of damage.
Strike Squads
These are some of the most efficient firepower in the codex. A couple of psycannons and lots of storm bolters with psybolts, for cheap, makes an awesome unit in 6th. 6th is less about hiding in transports and more about running around shooting stuff, and GKSS are very efficient scoring fire support units.
They’re weaker in CC than other GK units, so they’re more of a backline, but I think these guys will be a bit more common. Use them as a firing line to back up your Terminator/Paladins, and hide some Purifiers in there to pick off enemy assault units and mobs, but either way GKSS will make a solid scoring core to your army while your specialist units go out and do their job.
Fast Attack
Interceptors
These are everything that Strike Squads are, but super-duper fast. As I said, the vehicle nerf means that infantry shooting means more, and anything that can pull that off while remaining highly mobile just got awesome. They didn’t get directly buffed, though Hammer of Wrath is a nice, if mostly useless, little ability, but the change in the meta is very favorable for these guys. I already took them a lot, now I’ll probably always take a squad.
Storm Ravens
Let me just go on record saying that the flyer rules are stupid. Flyers and skyfire is far too imbalanced between codices. Some armies are screwed, and other armies can bring the pain. Imagine facing 9 Valkyrie/Vendettas or a Necron army with maxed out flyers. That thought is literally the only time in all the years I’ve played 40k that I have ever decided that I would refuse to play the dick that brought that list. And how much do you bet that GW will wait until they’ve sold a ton of flyers before FAQing flakk missiles into every codex?
Storm Ravens at least are limited to three per army and are super expensive. They’re nasty gunships, and they’ll do a lot of damage to an enemy army. Flyers are a bit questionable as transports, because if they crash anything inside is basically dead, but Storm Ravens can pack in a lot of firepower so you don’t really need to use them as a transport. Maybe hide a cheap unit of Acolytes in there to drop on an objective late game, or something.
Heavy Support
This still suffers from the problem in 5th, where a handful of choices outweighs the majority, but 6th has balanced things out a bit.
Land Raiders
Land Raiders are a bit more viable, in that weaker transports have been nerfed. Where Rhinos fail, Land Raiders can still deliver a unit into assault effectively, though they’re fragile enough that they’re still tough to justify.
Dreadnoughts
Dreadnoughts have changed. On one hand, vehicle rules make CC Dreadnoughts much weaker, which means that if you do see a Dreadnought it’s even more likely to be a psyrifle Dread. On the other hand, weaker vehicles means you’ll probably see fewer psyrifle Dreads, both because they’re more fragile themselves, but also because they’re optimal against light vehicles. Psyrifle Dreads are really good at killing vehicles, but they’re actually very mediocre at everything else. In 5th, that didn’t matter, because light vehicle spam was king. Now, though, with fewer vehicles psyrifle Dread spammers will find that these guys are not particularly good against infantry, and thus they will be spammed less. Other than Storm Ravens, though, they are about the only means of reasonably hurting flyers, so people will still take some. I seriously doubt you’ll see any more lists with 6+ Dreadnoughts, though.
Purgation Squads
Purgation squads are still just inefficient versions of other GK units, but if Dreadnoughts become less common you might see more because they can still pack in pretty good firepower.
Nemesis Dreadknight
Still very, very expensive and very, very fragile, but I’d expect to see more Dreadknights. They’re str 10 now, they smash vehicles thanks to always hitting on a 3+ or better, they can challenge so you don’t have to worry about Power Fists, 2+ armor got buffed, and fewer transports means that their guns will have greater effect. And they cause Fear, which is just plain cool. But since there’s less competition in the Heavy slot and these guys got buffed, they just became a very solid choice.
That said, they’re still easy to shoot to death. You need to be careful using these guys, or they’ll be shot to death before being useful. I would hide them behind something for the first few turns, then at the opportune moment charge out and start smashing stuff. Timed well, and they’ll be a huge thorn in your opponent’s side. Timed poorly, and you just wasted ~250pts.
Here are some other changes that affect the codex as a whole:
Psychic Defenses
GKs got improved psychic defenses, and since almost all of their powers are Blessings now only Eldar, Space Wolves, and sometimes ‘nidz can resist their powers. Net win for GKs. Other than the Librarian (and cleansing flame), no GK unit actually relies on its psychic powers to win, but they’re nice bonuses. Those bonuses just got a little better, and on top of that the generic psychic powers give some GK units a few extra options that are quite nice.
GK’s psychic defenses also improved. Not only do we get the Aegis, and not only do we also get Deny the Witch, but since basically everything is a psyker we get a 5+ Deny the Witch. Our opponent is at -1 ld, we get a 5+ to ignore it, which works out to a mere 55% chance of pulling of a psychic power targeting GKs on ld 10. That’s pretty solid.
Challenges
Staves just got awesome. Take a stave on everything, and if you run into a nasty HQ you can challenge and just tank him the whole game. Or you can guarantee killing that SM sergeant before he ever gets to smash any poor little Grey Knights in your squad.
HQs benefit as well. Take a hammer on a Grand Master, and put him in a unit with a Stave. Then, no matter what you face, you can either use the GM to smash them with the hammer, or use the Stave to tank them while the GM goes to town on the squad.
This leads to a problem that I’ve had several times now, though. I played a SW player who took Wolf Guard in Terminator armor and used them as squad leaders. After I’d killed all of the Grey Hunters, I was still stuck in a challenge with my Warding Stave and his Terminator armor, neither of us able to pierce the 2+ armor with a mere 2-3 attacks per turn.
This can mean your expensive GKs are tied up a few extra turns in assault. This can be good for you, if you tie up certain enemy deathstars, but a smart opponent can also do this to your Paladins. Imagine a 1000pt unit tied up for an extra turn or two because one Wolf Guard in Terminator armor decided to sacrifice himself.
So be careful about when you issue and accept challenges, and remember the rules for Intervention, or whatever that rule is called. You can use the rules to your advantage, but they can also be used against you as well.
Weapon Loadouts
Psycannons are still the king of the guns. Psilencers are crap, and Incinerators are decent, but have so many limitations compared to Psycannons that it’s an easy choice. Psybolts are even better now, though, because anti-infantry shooting is more important and glancing hits on vehicles are more dangerous.
Wargear is different, though. Staves are even more awesome, while Hammers are simultaneously more and less useful. On a Justicar, they’re worthless because your opponent can challenge and kill it before you get to hit. You also don’t need them to kill Dreadnoughts anymore, either. But you do need them to inflict AP2 wounds.
Other NFWs are still the same. Halberds are best on everything other than GKSS and Interceptors, where you want Swords because they’re cheap. Then take your Stave, and one or two Hammers as desired, and you’re done. Just try and keep the points down.
Vehicle rules
GKs were great at the light vehicle spam game, but that's not the way to go anymore. GKs are also, however, great at the mobile infantry firepower game, though. Storm Bolter spam for the win.
It's tough to say exactly how much the vehicle rules have changed the meta. There will be fewer transports, but vehicles still have impressive firepower, so it'll be interesting to see how it turn out. GKs make very solid foot lists, though, so this isn't a bad turn for them.
Non-linear warfare
Reserves, outflanking, and deepstrike all got buffed. Through various means, GKs have widespread access to these things. This is good for us. Reserves come in earlier, more reliably, and warlord traits and psychic powers grant wider access to means of manipulating reserves. You can have units show up suddenly in places your opponent didn’t expect.
For example, outflank 10 GKSS. They’ll almost certainly come in turn 2. Walk on somewhere your opponent doesn’t have the firepower to kill them with immediately, and start shooting. You’ll do a lot of damage, and your opponent will have to dedicate a significant amount of resources to killing them. Doing this against the right opponent in the right place at the right time can easily win you the game.
GKs are very good at playing the reserve game. We can choose to have units popping out of nowhere, all over the board, and catch the opponent by surprise in multiple places from multiple directions at once. Start using reserves more.
This is also another big reason to take a Grand Master.
Flyers
Stupid flyers.
Ok, you need lots of firepower to kill flyers. That means lots of psycannons (nothing new), and possibly a number of psyrifle Dreads. Not too many, for reasons I mentioned earlier, but you might still need some.
And, of course, we have the Storm Raven. We can take our own flyer, one that’s a pretty impressive gunship. You might also want to trick it out for shooting down other flyers so you have the option.
And that’s about all you can do. Be happy, though, a lot of armies are a lot worse off.
We are pretty good against Flying Monstrous Creatures, though. We have more than enough shots to force grounding tests, and once they’re down on the ground they’re not particularly difficult to deal with.