Hallowed Conclave: The 11th-Edition Grey Knights Terminator Detachment

GREY KNIGHTS TERMINATOR units from your army are eligible to shoot and declare a charge in a turn in which they Fell Back.

That is the entire rule, and it is worth sitting with, because it does not add damage, durability or movement. It removes an opponent's answer.

Here is the tactic it kills. The standard way to neutralise an elite melee unit is to charge it with something cheap and worthless, a screen or a spare vehicle, and hold it there. The elite unit is now stuck: it can fight the worthless thing, or it can Fall Back, in which case it loses its shooting and its charge for the turn and achieves nothing either way. Either result costs you a turn from your most expensive unit.

Duty Before All deletes that. A Terminator squad that gets bogged down simply walks out and charges the thing it actually wanted to kill, in the same turn. Your opponent's cheap screen has bought them nothing.

Two details readers miss:

• Paladin Squads have the TERMINATOR keyword, so the rule covers them as well as Brotherhood Terminator Squads. This is the overlap that makes the Argent Assault pairing so strong.
• The rule says nothing about Infantry or Psykers. It is the keyword and only the keyword that matters, which is a refreshingly short condition list by the standards of this faction.

What it does not do is help you get into combat in the first place. Terminators are slow, and this detachment offers no mobility. That is the gap a partner detachment has to fill.

Six, all 1CP. Note that four of them target INFANTRY rather than TERMINATOR, so your Strike Squads benefit too.

• Giants of the Battlefield (Fight). Battle Tactic. Target one GREY KNIGHTS TERMINATOR unit that has not fought this phase. Until the end of the phase, add 1 to the Attacks characteristic of its melee weapons. A flat damage increase across the whole squad, and on five Terminators with multi-attack Nemesis weapons that is a large number of extra swings for one point.
• Point-Blank Purgation (your Shooting). Strategic Ploy. Target one GREY KNIGHTS INFANTRY unit that has not shot. Until the end of the phase, storm bolter weapons in your unit have [PISTOL] and [TWIN-LINKED]. Pistol lets them shoot while engaged and Twin-linked re-rolls the wounds. Every Terminator carries a storm bolter, so this turns a locked-down squad into a shooting unit and doubles its reliability simultaneously. Excellent alongside the detachment rule: shoot from inside the combat, then fall back and charge elsewhere.
• Grind Them Underfoot (your Charge). Strategic Ploy. Just after a GREY KNIGHTS TERMINATOR unit ends a Charge move, select one enemy unit within Engagement Range and roll one D6 for each model in your unit within Engagement Range of it: for each 4+ it suffers 1 mortal wound, to a maximum of 6. Free damage before anyone swings. Get as many models into engagement range as you can before rolling.
• Unending Fidelity (opponent's Shooting or the Fight). Strategic Ploy. Just after an enemy selects targets, target one GREY KNIGHTS INFANTRY unit that was selected. Each time a model in your unit is destroyed, if it has not shot or fought this phase, roll one D6; on a 4+ it is not removed and can shoot or fight after the attacking unit finishes, then is removed. Fights back from the grave, and it is at its best when your opponent shoots the squad before it has activated.
• Shining Resolve (opponent's Shooting). Strategic Ploy. Just after an enemy selects targets, target one GREY KNIGHTS INFANTRY unit that was selected. Until the end of the phase, each attack against your unit whose Strength is greater than your Toughness subtracts 1 from the Wound roll. Precisely the defensive counterpart to Argent Assault's offensive rule, and it blunts exactly the high-Strength weapons brought to kill Terminators.
• Precognitive Strategies (opponent's Movement). Strategic Ploy. Just after an enemy unit ends a Normal, Advance or Fall Back move, target one GREY KNIGHTS INFANTRY unit within 8 inches of it and not engaged. Your unit can make a Normal move of up to D6 inches. Faction Pack v1.1 amends this by name, tightening the Target range from 9 inches to 8. A reactive move that lets a slow Terminator squad follow something trying to escape it, and the closest thing the detachment has to mobility.

Four, two of them TERMINATOR model only and two of them open to any Grey Knights model.

• Eye of the Augurium (25 pts). GREY KNIGHTS model only. You can target this unit with the Heroic Intervention stratagem regardless of any other uses of that stratagem this phase; that use is -1 CP, and it does not prevent any uses of the stratagem on other units this phase. Faction Pack v1.1 rewrites this enhancement wholesale, so the wording above is first-party rather than mirror-sourced. In effect it gives you a discounted extra Heroic Intervention every phase, which turns a Terminator squad into a genuine reactive threat during your opponent's turn.
• Inescapable Judgement (Psychic) (20 pts). GREY KNIGHTS model only. Each time an enemy unit within Engagement Range of the bearer's unit Falls Back, roll one D6: on a 2 to 5 it suffers D3 mortal wounds, on a 6 it suffers D3+3. These are Psychic Attacks. The thematic partner to the detachment rule. Your Terminators already punish being tarpitted; this punishes the other option. Against an opponent who has learned they cannot hold you, it taxes their escape.
• Sanctic Reaper (15 pts). GREY KNIGHTS TERMINATOR model only. Add 3 to the Attacks characteristic of the bearer's melee weapons. Three extra attacks on a character with a good weapon profile is a substantial single-model damage increase, and the cheapest way to make a leading character carry its own weight.
• Nemesis Rounds (10 pts). GREY KNIGHTS TERMINATOR model only. Each time you target the bearer's unit with the Fire Overwatch Stratagem, hits are scored on unmodified Hit rolls of 5+ while resolving it. Overwatch normally hits only on 6s, so this is a large improvement to a reactive tool on a squad that already carries storm bolters. The cheapest enhancement and an easy include.

(Points come from the Munitorum Field Manual and move with updates; confirm in the app.)

• [Brotherhood Terminator Squad](/40k/boxes/warhammer-grey-knights-paladin-squad-new) is the unit the detachment is built around. Our catalog entry is named Grey Knights Paladin / Terminator Squad, so it is the exact match for this datasheet.
• [Paladin Squad](/40k/boxes/warhammer-grey-knights-paladin-squad-new) is also a TERMINATOR unit, so Duty Before All covers it in full. This is the overlap that makes Argent Assault the obvious 1 DP partner.
• Grand Master is a Terminator character able to carry Sanctic Reaper or Nemesis Rounds, both TERMINATOR model only. No box is linked, because our catalog has no exact entry for the generic Grand Master.
• [Grand Master Voldus](/40k/boxes/warhammer-grey-knights-grandmaster-voldus-new) is a named Terminator character, and Faction Pack v1.1 rewrites his Sanctuary ability so his unit has Stealth and melee attacks against it suffer -1 to hit. That suits a squad which expects to be charged.
• [Strike Squad](/40k/boxes/warhammer-grey-knights-strike-squad-new) benefits from four of the six stratagems, which target INFANTRY rather than TERMINATOR. They screen and score while the Terminators do the work.

No Unique Tag, so all three 1 DP detachments are legal for exactly 3 DP.

• [Argent Assault](/40k/armies/grey-knights/detachments/argent-assault) (1 DP) is the strongest pairing in the faction and gets its own page. Paladin Squads are TERMINATOR units, so the same squad falls back, shoots and charges under Duty Before All and gets +1 to wound against tougher targets from Dauntless Champions. The two rules apply to one unit with no conditions to reconcile.
• [Immaterial Interdiction](/40k/armies/grey-knights/detachments/immaterial-interdiction) (1 DP) fills the gap this detachment leaves. Terminators are slow and nothing here makes them faster; Interceptors take the objectives your armoured core cannot reach in time.
• [Fires of Purgation](/40k/armies/grey-knights/detachments/fires-of-purgation) (1 DP) adds a ranged threat. Point-Blank Purgation aside, this detachment has almost no shooting of its own.

All three are legal, and all three are genuinely reasonable. The question is whether you want to make your best unit better, cover your mobility gap, or cover your shooting gap.

Take it when Terminators and Paladins are the heart of your collection, and when you are tired of watching your best unit get held in place by something worthless.

Be clear-eyed about the limits. The rule adds no damage and no durability. It is worth exactly as much as the tarpitting your opponent would otherwise do, which is a lot against a skilled opponent and rather less against one who simply shoots you. The detachment is also slow: there is one reactive D6 inch move in the whole stratagem list, and Terminators walk.

Sample gameplan: pair it with [Argent Assault](/40k/armies/grey-knights/detachments/argent-assault) (1 DP) for exactly 3 DP. Run a Paladin Squad as the hammer with Psychic Celerity from the partner detachment on a Grand Master leading them, and a Brotherhood Terminator Squad as the anvil carrying Nemesis Rounds. Screen with Strike Squads. When your opponent screens the Paladins, fall back and charge the real target, spending A Threat Ended for Precision to kill the character. Hold a point for Shining Resolve when the anti-tank weapons come for your Terminators.

For the fundamentals underneath all of it, read the Grey Knights army guide.