Sanctic Spearhead: The 11th-Edition Grey Knights Vehicle Detachment

Each time a GREY KNIGHTS VEHICLE unit from your army Advances, do not make an Advance roll for it; until the end of the phase, add 6 inches to the Move characteristic of models in that unit, and until the end of the turn, ranged weapons equipped by models in that unit have the [ASSAULT] ability.

There are two separate gifts in that sentence, and the second is the one that changes how you play.

The guaranteed 6 inches removes variance. An Advance roll of a 1 is what makes Advancing a gamble, and a gamble is exactly what you cannot afford with a single expensive vehicle whose position determines whether it shoots anything next turn. A flat 6 lets you plan a move precisely, measure it in advance, and commit.

The [ASSAULT] grant is the real rule. Advancing normally means your vehicle does not shoot. Assault means it does. Put those together and the Advance stops being a repositioning move you take when you have given up on shooting, and becomes an attacking move you take every turn. A Grey Knights vehicle under Mailed Fist moves its full profile plus 6 inches and still fires everything.

Note the restriction is VEHICLE. A Nemesis Dreadknight is a Walker and a Vehicle, so it is covered, and it is the unit most players build this detachment around. Your Terminators, Paladins and Strike Squads are not covered by the detachment rule at all, which is the gap a partner detachment fills.

One consequence worth planning for: terrain. The main thing that stops a large model from using the 6 inches this rule hands it is a wall, which is why the Force Wave stratagem below matters more than it looks.

Six, all 1CP. Five name VEHICLE units; one deliberately does not.

• Abominus-class Targets (your Shooting or the Fight). Battle Tactic. Target one GREY KNIGHTS unit that has not shot or fought this phase. Until the end of the phase, each attack against a MONSTER or VEHICLE unit adds 1 to the Wound roll. Note this targets any Grey Knights unit rather than only vehicles, so it is the detachment's contribution to the rest of your army. It is also the anti-armour answer a vehicle list still needs, because your vehicles are usually the ones facing theirs.
• Redoubled Assault (your Movement). Strategic Ploy. Just after a GREY KNIGHTS VEHICLE unit Falls Back, until the end of the turn it is eligible to shoot and declare a charge in a turn in which it Fell Back. This is the vehicle equivalent of what Hallowed Conclave gives Terminators for free, bought one turn at a time with a command point. It is how a Dreadknight escapes a tarpit and still contributes.
• Force Wave (your Movement or Charge). Strategic Ploy. Target one GREY KNIGHTS VEHICLE unit that has not moved or charged this phase. Until the end of the phase, each Normal, Advance or Charge move it makes can move horizontally through terrain features. Terrain is what stops a big model from cashing in the guaranteed 6 inches, so this converts a guaranteed Advance into a guaranteed arrival. Underrated.
• Truesilver Will (any phase). Epic Deed. Just after a GREY KNIGHTS PSYKER VEHICLE unit suffers a mortal wound, until the end of the phase models in it have Feel No Pain 4+ against mortal wounds. Vehicles in this edition are most reliably killed by mortal wounds that ignore their armour entirely, so this is the protective stratagem that matters most.
• Armoured Aegis (your Command). Strategic Ploy. Target one GREY KNIGHTS PSYKER VEHICLE unit; one model regains up to 3 lost wounds. Healing rather than prevention. On a bracketed vehicle, three wounds is often the difference between a full profile and a degraded one, which makes it worth more than the raw number suggests.
• Argent Wrath (your Charge). Strategic Ploy. Just after a GREY KNIGHTS VEHICLE unit ends a Charge move, each enemy unit within 3 inches must take a Battle-shock test, subtracting 1. Area control rather than damage, scaling with how many enemy units are packed near the charge. Battle-shocked units have no Objective Control, so this is a scoring tool as much as a disruption one.

Four, and two of them require a Transport in your list to function at all, which is a genuine list-building constraint rather than a footnote.

• Sigil of Exigence (30 pts). GREY KNIGHTS model only. Once per battle, in your opponent's Shooting phase, when the bearer's unit is selected as the target of a ranged attack, you can remove the bearer's unit and set it back up anywhere more than 8 inches horizontally from all enemy units; if the unit is no longer an eligible target, your opponent can select new targets. Faction Pack v1.1 amends this from 9 inches to 8, and the pack's single FAQ confirms it can be used during your opponent's first turn. The most expensive enhancement in the faction, and it is a complete escape from one shooting attack, which against an alpha strike can be worth an entire unit.
• Spiritus Machina (25 pts). GREY KNIGHTS INFANTRY model only. In your Shooting phase, each time the bearer's unit is selected to shoot, if it disembarked from a Transport this turn, until the end of the phase each model can re-roll the Wound roll. Full wound re-rolls are a very large damage increase. The condition ties the detachment's vehicles to its infantry: the transport is not just delivery, it is a buff enabler.
• Quickening Foci (15 pts). GREY KNIGHTS INFANTRY model only. In your Movement phase, each time the bearer's unit disembarks from a TRANSPORT, until the end of the turn you can re-roll Charge rolls for that unit. The melee counterpart to Spiritus Machina and the same design idea: get out of the vehicle, then do something reliable. A disembark followed by a failed charge is one of the worst outcomes in the game.
• Driven by Duty (10 pts). GREY KNIGHTS WALKER model only. Each time the bearer's unit Piles In or Consolidates, the bearer can move up to 6 inches instead of up to 3. Note the WALKER restriction, which in practice means a Dreadknight or a Dreadnought. Doubling consolidation distance lets a big walker chain from one fight into the next, or consolidate onto an objective it could not otherwise reach.

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

• [Grand Master in Nemesis Dreadknight](/40k/boxes/grey-knights-grandmaster-in-nemesis-dreadknight) is the faction's signature walker and the natural centrepiece. It is a Vehicle and a Walker, so it benefits from Mailed Fist and is the legal carrier for Driven by Duty.
• Nemesis Dreadknight is the non-character version and the one you take more than one of. No box is linked, because our catalog has no exact entry for it as distinct from the Grand Master version.
• Stormraven Gunship is worth flagging because Faction Pack v1.1 changes its datasheet directly: Move becomes 14 inches and the AIRCRAFT keyword is removed, which makes it behave like a fast skimmer rather than a flyer. That is a substantial change to how it plays. No box is linked, because the catalog has no exact Stormraven entry.
• Land Raider is the heavy transport, and one of five datasheets that gain the FRAME keyword in v1.1. No box is linked, because the catalog has no exact Grey Knights Land Raider entry.
• [Strike Squad](/40k/boxes/warhammer-grey-knights-strike-squad-new) is the infantry that rides in the transports, and the legal carrier for Spiritus Machina and Quickening Foci, both of which require disembarking from a Transport.

One buying note. Two of the datasheets a vehicle list reaches for, the Grey Knights Dreadnought and the Grey Knights Relic Razorback, are printed in Faction Pack v1.1's Warhammer Legends section and are not legal for matched play. Use the Venerable Dreadnought and the standard Razorback instead.

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

• [Fires of Purgation](/40k/armies/grey-knights/detachments/fires-of-purgation) (1 DP) covers the gap directly. Mailed Fist touches vehicles only, so a foot-based gun unit adds firepower the detachment rule cannot. Advancing, shooting vehicles pull attention while the Purgation Squad holds a firing position.
• [Argent Assault](/40k/armies/grey-knights/detachments/argent-assault) (1 DP) gives the list a melee threat that does not depend on a vehicle surviving to deliver it, which a pure armour list badly wants.
• [Immaterial Interdiction](/40k/armies/grey-knights/detachments/immaterial-interdiction) (1 DP) supplies fast infantry to take the objectives your armour drives past. Interceptors move under their own power rather than needing a transport, which suits a list whose vehicles are busy attacking rather than ferrying.

Take it when Dreadknights are why you collect Grey Knights, or when you own transports and want them to be more than taxis.

Be clear-eyed about the limits. The detachment rule covers vehicles only, so your Terminators, Paladins and Strike Squads get nothing from it. Two of the four enhancements require a Transport in your list, so they are dead points in a walker-only build. And a low-model-count army that also concentrates its value into a few large chassis is putting a great deal on a small number of saving throws.

Sample gameplan: pair with [Fires of Purgation](/40k/armies/grey-knights/detachments/fires-of-purgation) (1 DP) for exactly 3 DP. Run a Grand Master in Nemesis Dreadknight with Driven by Duty so it chains between combats, plus a second Dreadknight, and a Land Raider or Razorback carrying a Strike Squad with Spiritus Machina. Advance every turn under Mailed Fist so your guns fire anyway, spend Force Wave when terrain is in the way, and hold a point for Truesilver Will when the mortal wounds start. Disembark the Strike Squad and shoot with full wound re-rolls.

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