Grey Knights preview three new detachments for elite daemon hunting

Grey Knights sharpen the same old fantasy

Grey Knights have just been handed a very clear promise: stay elite, hit harder, and keep enough warp-fed tricks to matter in a faster edition. The new Faction Focus preview names three detachments, Argent Assault, Fires of Purgation, and Immaterial Interdiction, and the early spotlight makes one thing obvious, this is not a rethink of the army so much as a refinement of what Grey Knights already do best.

That matters because Grey Knights live or die on identity. They are the silver-clad psychic Space Marines from Titan, the secret warfighting order that hunts daemons, warp manifestations, and the kind of infestations that can weaken reality itself. Their appeal has always come from precision rather than scale, a compact force of few but powerful units, protected from warp hazards and able to appear where they are needed most through teleportation and repeated battlefield redeployment. The new preview keeps that core intact while giving it sharper edges.

Argent Assault turns Paladins into the headline threat

Argent Assault is the detachment that most clearly says, “yes, Grey Knights should still feel like Grey Knights.” Paladins are the stars here, and the rule set is built to reward them for punching up into enemy units that would normally be a problem for elite infantry. The detachment rule gives Paladin Squad units +1 to wound when their Strength is lower than the target’s Toughness, which is exactly the kind of nudge that makes specialist melee feel reliable instead of merely stylish.

That lines up neatly with the fact that Paladins have Strength 6 on their nemesis force weapons. In practical terms, Warhammer Community says that puts them on track to wound almost all daemonic life, plus most Vehicles and Monsters, on a 4+. For Grey Knights players, that is the kind of breakpoint that preserves the army’s fantasy: these are not just durable bodies with swords, they are the order’s answer to things that are too large, too cursed, or too heavily armoured for ordinary infantry to handle cleanly.

Psychic Celerity and the charge from the warp

The preview also highlights Psychic Celerity, an Enhancement that helps a Grey Knights leader make a Deep Strike assault more reliably. That is a small detail with a big payoff, because Grey Knights have always lived in the narrow gap between teleportation and the charge that follows. If your army can arrive where it needs to be but fails the decisive move into combat, the whole plan can collapse.

Argent Assault also adds a wonderfully spiteful defensive wrinkle: enemy weapons become Hazardous when they strike back in melee against the Paladins. That is a very Grey Knights answer to retaliation, turning the foe’s own counterattack into a gamble. It reinforces the army’s signature feel, an elite force that does not just survive contact with the enemy, but makes the enemy regret making contact at all.

Fires of Purgation keeps the shooting phase relevant

If Argent Assault is the close-range hammer, Fires of Purgation is the reminder that Grey Knights are not a one-note melee army. The preview spotlights Purgation Squads and their heavy psychic weapons, with incinerators, psilencers, and psycannons taking center stage. That gives the faction a way to pressure the board before the charge even starts, softening targets, pinning down infantry, and forcing opponents to respect short-range firepower as much as the threat of teleporting assault units.

This is the sort of tool a compact army needs. Grey Knights do not win by flooding the table with cheap bodies, they win by making every unit pull double duty. Fires of Purgation supports that approach by blending suppression with the faction’s usual surgical violence. It helps the army feel less like a collection of premium melee pieces and more like a force that can tailor its punishment to whatever is in front of it.

A faction built for precise violence

That mix of melee pressure and psychic gunfire fits the broader Grey Knights pattern that has been emphasized across recent coverage. The army’s mobility focus remains central in the new codex, with Gate of Infinity and repeated redeployment still sitting at the heart of how Grey Knights play. Earlier coverage also framed the Brotherhood Strike Detachment around Fury of Titan, which grants re-rolls of 1 to Hit and Wound when a unit returns from the battlefield, while Purity of Purpose lets a Grey Knights model re-roll Charge rolls for its unit after a Deep Strike setup.

Taken together, that paints a very specific battlefield role. Grey Knights are not trying to outnumber anyone, and they are not trying to outlast the enemy through sheer model count. They are trying to appear, strike, and reposition faster than the opponent can fully respond, while using psychic discipline and elite weaponry to solve problems one target at a time. That is the old fantasy, but it is being packaged for a modern table in a way that looks immediately practical.

Immaterial Interdiction and the wider detachment package

The third detachment, Immaterial Interdiction, is named in the preview, though the spotlight lands much more heavily on Argent Assault and Fires of Purgation. Even so, its presence helps show the shape of the whole codex package. Warhammer Community said the 2025 codex coverage would include five Detachments and 25 datasheets, so this preview sits inside a much broader rules framework rather than standing alone as a narrow gimmick reveal.

That broader frame matters because it keeps Grey Knights from drifting into a single-build faction. They still read as a balanced army with plenty of answers for different situations, but only a handful of truly powerful units rather than a wave of chaff. The recent December 2025 balance update, which gave minor points buffs to Interceptor and Purgation Squads, also suggests the studio is willing to keep tuning the army’s key pieces after launch. For Grey Knights players, that usually means a rules package that is meant to be played, not just admired.

What day-one Grey Knights should feel like

On day one, the new edition should preserve the most important part of the faction’s identity: Grey Knights are elite daemon hunters who win through precision, mobility, and just enough psychic brutality to make every engagement feel unfair to the enemy. Argent Assault pushes that fantasy hardest by making Paladins even more dangerous into the targets they are meant to delete. Fires of Purgation backs it up by making sure the army still has the ranged pressure to shape the table before the teleport strike lands.

That is the real story here. The new detachments do not ask Grey Knights to become something else, they sharpen the faction’s existing job description until it feels more dangerous, more flexible, and more ready for the pace of the new edition.