The HQ's who give access to new units are: Draigo, Crowe and Coteaz. They each unlock an Elite slot unit for selection as Troops. They are (in order): Paladins, Purifiers and Inquisitorial Henchmen. Each HQ is a very different unit so I'll review them each to show how they function and postulate as to how you can use them in the game.
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HQs
Draigo
Draigo is the grand master of the Grey Knights. He's lost in the Warp and just appears to mess Daemons up. He has three psychic powers and two levels. Psychic Communion is really nice when you have units in reserve as it allows you to modify each roll by +1 or -1 after you roll. Hammerhand is the Grey Knight bread and butter giving you +1 S in CC. He then has his own template power that's S5 AP - . Not fantastic as you'll cause .22 wounds per MEQ or .27 per FX. It has 2+ to wound Daemons so nice against that codex's MCs but if you aren't gonna run into them it's not too good but admittedly it is better than storm bolter as long as you hit 3 people. With storm bolter you have a .14 wound per shot with Draigo's BS.
Draigo in CC is pretty beastly. Mostly due to his loadout: master-crafted force sword and storm shield (gods what i'd give for termies with storm shields in this codex). Oh and terminator armor. With his sword he's got a .77 chance of hitting against pretty much everyone (WS 7) and this beast has been hitting the gym so he starts with S5 T5 and can use Hammerhand to get himself up to S6 to insta-gib FX HQ's. With 4 wounds 4 attacks and initiative 5 this guy is essentially a well-armored monstrous creature.
When against a unit that contains a psyker or a daemon it's GG. Even if Draigo directs none of his hits at the Psyker or Daemon he still gets S10 for every attack. Good bye Seeker Council.
He also has Fearless and Eternal Warrior. Truly a force unto himself he's really what a 275 point unit should look like. He's still crazy expensive (5 termies is 200) but unlocks the better termies, Paladins, and is the core of any Death Star-type unit you'll form from them. Overall a very good character.
Crowe
A brotherhood Champion so already you're risking points buying him. They never get enough attacks and are more used for the benefits to the unit they're with. He can get 6 attacks if he's completely surrounded alone by an enemy unit but I doubt that will happen. You'll probably get 2 maybe 3 attacks and your only S 4 so not very scary. He does get re-roll to hit for the first round of CC however so he will cause on average .44 wounds per attack.
Blade Shield is hilarious and gets even more hilarious when you notice that Crowe has an Iron Halo and a Nemesis Force Sword and artificer armor giving him 2+/3++. Challenge a strong IC, Blade Shield up, laugh. Oh and when he finally dies? Roll to hit (3+ with WS 7) and take that IC down with you with no saves of any kind. A 150 point tarpit/suicide bomb.
Oh wait. I'm sorry, that's all wrong. Crowe has a Daemon Weapon instead. Let me read the rules to see what it does...hmm counts as a close combat weapon so no more AP...hmm also it gives anyone who charges you Furious Charge and re-roll to hit...well then. It appears Crowe cannot tie up IC's anymore as his re-roll is only for a 4++. What a great weapon. He does get Rending on half of his attacks, however, so it's debatable whether AP 3 always is better than AP 1 half the time. (It ain't)
He does get Cleansing Flame however, the Purifier's power, that gives them 4+ to wound every member of the enemy unit before assault starts. It's like a free Hammer of Wrath attack against everybody. 1/6 chance to kill a MEQ and 1/3 to kill an FX. Imagine slapping into an Ork unit and 40% of the unit vanishes before being able to strike back and you still get your attacks first. This power is the anti-blob power.
Having Crowe means you'll want to have him jump into a blob and counter-tarpit it. Pop Cleansing Flame, blow away 1/3 of the unit and Blade Shield up. Not exactly a complicated character but with some good positioning can make his points back quick.
Coteaz
He has Imperial Guard Veteran stats which means he's not a nightmare in CC. His shooting is just a bolt pistol and his weird eagle that has very little chance of killing MEQ equivalent (1/6 per attack). He's not exactly worrisome to see marching towards you. He does however have some gracious rules, the first allows him to re-roll Seize the Initiative or force your opponent too. This means you'll rarely have the initiative seized from you (1/36) plus you now have a 30% chance to seize it yourself with the re-roll. His second ability allows you to shoot any unit that arrives from reserve within 12'' inches of Coteaz (effectively a circle with 25'' diameter). This is a pretty nice power but you have to pair him with a shooting unit because he just can't do it himself. He also has 3 psychic powers but the only one you'll use is Sanctuary to prevent people assaulting him and hopefully causing not only the assault to fail but for some units to fail dangerous terrain tests and die.
Unlocks
Paladins
Paladins are going to form a Deathstar with Draigo at the center. The 3 differences between Paladins and normal GK Termies are WS5 W2 and Holocaust psychic power. Only 1 model can use Holocaust per turn and it's a 12'' large blast so scatter can be a problem. It's slightly better than a storm bolter but only if you hit more than 3 enemies with it. The unit can also get an Apothecary giving them all feel no pain but it's 75 points. Wayyy expensive. Also every Paladin is 55 points themselves so in the end you'll probably just want 1 10 man unit decked to the nine's with a Banner and all weapons master-crafted (it's a Deathstar, spend some money). Give them Halberds and some Daemon Hammers (I do 3:2 but you can do 4:1) instead of swords and maybe give them psybolt ammunition to take out small fighter craft looking at your exhaust port. Taking Psycannons can give you a lot of long range punch but at this point your spending something like 1000 points on 1 unit. This Deathstar is hella expensive and can still be killed by a lot in the game.
In assault against TH/SS Termies with 16 Halberd attacks (4:1) you're going to get 2.1 wounds average. They then get 16 attacks back at you and on average they'll cause 4.4 wounds and each of those wounds insta-kills so that's 4 dead not 2. So now you've lost combat and 220-275 points of guys for 80 points worth. If a basic 10 man MEQ squad rapid-fire bolters at the Deathstar it will take 1.1 wounds aka 55 points worth of guy or 1/3 the cost of that MEQ squad. The Deathstar has nothing to use against flyers even if you pour an extra 80 points into psycannons. 16 shots at BS 1 against AV 12 leaves you with .88 glances/pens per turn. The real problem is lack of mobility and the possibility of having cheap units thrown in your way to tie you up. You may not even get up to 1/3 of your points back after being forced to assault several sub-100 point units.
Paladins, in my book, get a 4/10. Just too costly for a Deathstar that can't get good invulns. If you want a Deathstar take Assault Termies and Lysander. Not nearly as expensive and a bit more survivable.
Purifiers
Slightly more expensive than the basic troop in the codex but the benefits you get are astounding: double the number of attacks, double the number of special weapons (and psilencers are free), and the entire unit gets half price hammers, falchions and halberds. They also get Fearless which is debatably more awesome. They're really a good deal when it comes to their psychic power though, free attacks against everyone in combat before combat starts.
Henchmen
Coteaz's real power lies in what he unlocks: Henchmen become Troops. This doesn't sound too amazing until you start to see the cheap combos. It's really frightening how versatile Henchmen can be and what utility the unit brings to the board when you can compose said unit of any of the several options available.
This is by far the best unlock you get because you can spend very few points and have extremely varied threats. Minimum squads with razorback dedicated transports is the most broken combo. 12 points for a minimum 3 man squad and 50 for the razorback with psybolt ammuntion. 6 Psyrazors for 372 points is craziness (for Space Marines to do the same would cost 780 and your heavy bolters aren't S6). You now have 6 vehicles and can take 3 Dreadnights and you're only at 962 points. Hell, instead, take Psyfleman Dreads (2 TL-autocannon and psybolt ammo) for 15 points more so 977. You still have enough points left for a Draigo Deathstar (920 points) in a 1999 point game (Though I have no idea what you'll do with the last 100 points).
The half-price car park is definitely the best of the Henchmen combos but there are several good compositions:
- Crusader squads with Force Axes. They can melt through the back-line of nearly any army. Who cares if they're Unwieldy they're probably going last anyways but now they have a better chance of chopping up that pesky Long Fang/Broadside/Havocs unit.
- Jokaeros in Chimeras. Take 3 in a chimera and it's 160 points for 3 lascannons per turn in a light vehicle. I don't know if I would take 6 of them because 18 BS 3 lascannons are great but I doubt you'll have to blow up that many vehicles but hey, 9 lascannon hits per turn is kinda nuts.
- Servitors with Heavy Bolters and PsyRazors. 80 points for 4 Heavy bolters and a light vehicle. To get the same from Space Marines or CSM would cost 185 or 150 points respectively. You'll have a crazy amount of mid-range threat with 6 PsyRazors and 18 Heavy bolters. Averaging about 27 S5 AP 5 shots per turn with just servitors and an additional 12 S6 AP5 shots leading to 9 dead MEQ a turn or 28 dead FX. The first isn't a real threat but against FX this can be devastating. You'll be able to bring down a ton of FX vehicles as well.
- Finally Psykers in Rhinos. 5 of them in a Rhino gives you a mobile S8 AP1 turret. It's 90 points for this unit to start dropping plates all over the enemy. Really good but compared to the rest it's just okay due to the chance of scatter and the chance of the power failing. A comparable unit is a Vindicator: the trade-off is 25 points less for a few weapon malfunctions at 2 less strength. The bonus is you can have 6 max instead of 3 max. If you're lucky or likely to be facing a lot of blobs you can't go wrong with this.
Coteaz makes GK into an insanely powerful main force because you only have to spend 572 points for an HQ, 6 Troops and 6 vehicles (and the vehicles can mow down FX and other light vehicles). You can then blow 1428 points on even more GK (seeing as pretty much everything in GK is good), allies like Necrons (because it totally makes sense to everybody) or Tau or Space Marines. God how about adding 3 Dreadknights and 3 Stormraven Gunships? You're at 1577, still enough to get a small allied unit (How about a 400 point Lysander Deathstar? lol jokes.)
Conclusion
Coteaz's unlock of Henchman really blows this codex out of proportion (as if Psyflemen or Dreadknights didn't already). Crowe's unlock of Purifiers is absolutely excellent as well but is completely overshadowed by the 'half-price car park ability' of Coteaz.
The Draigo Deathstar, while interesting, will have problems engaging everyone on the map, obviously, and, while it may seem survivable, can still get smacked by assault terminators. They have no Flyer defense and can get bogged down marching across the board.
In the end a Purifier army or a Henchman army are both very valid compositions and neither HQ is any good so they're 95% for their Troops unlock. The combos you can get from these with the rest of the units in the codex or Allies help create army compositions that can wipe a lot of what you'll see.
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