PeteyPab is back with part 2 of his tactical review of the Triumvirate of the Primarch. Today he is covering the Grey Knight’s most gifted psyker Grand Master Voldus. For more great tactics articles check out our Tactics Corner!
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Grand Master Voldus is renowned across titan as their most powerful psyker and his rules reflect that. He has access to the most psychic powers of any Grey Knight model and is also the only unit with a Grand Master statline who is also Mastery Level 3. Not including Draigo, because he has 1 more wound than your average grand master.
Stats/Wargear/Special Rules
Master Voldus has the exact same statline as a Grey Knights Grand Master, as well as the wargear and special rules of any other Grey Knight rocking a badass suit of terminator armor. As mentioned before he is mastery level 3 but as far as what sets him apart from other Grey Knights… I provided a list below.
Oh, and because I wasn’t perfectly clear in my review of Roboute Guilliman the Primarch of the Ultramarines yesterday. VOLDUS IS 240 POINTS. So at 5 points less than Draigo, let’s see what he has to offer.
- Warlord Trait: As the lore master of Titan Voldus is allowed to generate one more power than he normally would, but, it must be generated from the Daemonology Sanctic discipline. This slightly worst version of the Liber Daemonica is ok, but honestly I wouldn’t try to make Voldus my warlord in most instances. Though this does beg the question… if he is the Lore Master of Titan then why doesn’t he just check out the Liber Daemonica from the Titan library? Is he a tome hoarder with an outstanding library fine?
- As a psyker Voldus can generate from all of the normal psychic disciplines Grey Knights can. In addition he generates from the Geokinesis, Librarius, Fulmination, and Technomancy disciplines found in the Angels of Death supplement. Also known as “Those broken powers Space Marines got, but barely ever use because most of their faction is broken”.
- Voldus wields the Malleus Argyrum into battle. A hammer so powerful it acts exactly like a Nemesis Daemon Hammer, except it lost that pesky unwieldy rule to enable Voldus to swing at initiative. Not bad.
Unfortunately we do not have the rules for how Voldus can be taken in a Grey Knight army, but I assume he should be an HQ choice so that’s where I am going to start. Voldus is a great piece to a Grey Knight army looking to make Draigostar a come back thing in 7th edition. He is an Independant Character, so he can join a unit of Paladins along with Kaldor Draigo and use those nifty new psychic powers Tigurius taught him to teleport his unit around the board and give them the ability to reroll their saves. Now, he is most likely going to be the only model in the unit who gets access to those powers so you really have to devote him to rolling on one of those disciplines exclusively. I think this is the best way to run him because he only has a 4+ invuln and 3 wounds to defend himself with.
As for outside of Grey Knight fluff themed armies Voldus falls short and is outclassed by a lot of models. At 240 points you can get a better beat stick in the Space Marine chapter master. Tigurius is still the better all around psyker for a lot less points. Heck, you can even take an entire Librarius conclave for less points then Voldus. He is also not even the best Grey Knight IC in the codex. A title Draigo still held onto with an extra wound and eternal warrior for only 5 more points. Voldus does have a better weapon then Draigo though, so maybe he has better close combat capability. You just have to overlook the fact that the entire codex is teeming with Hammerhand casters.
What do you think about Grand Master Voldus? Is there any army lists I am missing that could us a dominant Grey Knight Psyker?
I think the lack of EW holds him back, as well as his high cost – unfortunately.
I think comparing him to Dragio you missed a few important points. First, Dragio is NOT an HQ, he’s a Lord of war, that means a “tax” if you wanna take Dragio. of a HQ unit, most likely the HQ choice’ll be a Librarian (the cheapest option is a tech marine at 90). so there is that element of it. Dragio is also PL 2, with a FAR less flexable selection of spells. my gut feeling re Voldus is that he’ll be most useful as a “Discount Dragio” where you’d take him, instead of a librarian AND dragio, for a total savings of 115 points.
I was looking at them from a Grey Knight IC vacuum. I know Draigo is a lord of war. I did forget to mention the ML 2 thing, but I still think Draigo with a cheap HQ “tax” is the superior choice. Just because of his survivability and access to Gate.
But honestly, at this point, if you plan on taking either of them you should just focus on a fun list instead of what’s competitive. Grey Knights can’t make top tables at the moment.
yeah, but as I said there are some useful ways to look at it. given what we know thus far, my over all reaction is “discount Dragio”
We reviewed his rules during the Forge The Narrative recording my take away was that Voldus is the real winner from this set. Cypher gets a great new model, no real updates. Rhubarb McGilllicutty is a beat until he receives some formation benefit that allows him to join a unit I don’t believe he is over-powered, though I still expect to see a lot of RG3 on the table at events. That leaves Voldus. Unfortuntely, he is a Grey Knight who obviously need a lot of help to compete in today’s meta but he alone, if he is able to be taken at a GK HQ, in an Allied Detachment, will be an amazing addition to any Imperial army. I mean…seriously…a Thunderhammer that swings at Initiative is pretty solid for 240pts. I wholly expect to see him in a Tigurius Conclave with Saint and probable a bunch of Centurions.
Good review! Thanks!
Worth noting that unlike their Space Marine brethren, Grey Knight Terminators have grenades. So, Voldus will be swinging his S8 (or S10 w/Hammerhand) AP2 Force Daemonhammer at I5 even when charging into cover.
So far, that seems to be the main reason to take him. Delivering sweet Instant Death at a fairly high Initiative step. I’m setting aside the new Psychic disciplines because many tournaments are banning them. If he’d had some kind of bonus to his survivability, that would have helped. Particularly considering his cost.
On a side note, GKs could really use a jump HQ to keep up with the Interceptors. That would be a nice addition.
I know, it’s kinda neat. The psyk out grenades have come in clutch for me sometimes too.
Well Draigo has guarantee Gate of Infiniti…. soooo yea he’s better since there aren’t really other true tier 1 competitive build for GK aside from Centstar.
Voldus has the grand master stat line with mastery 3, the automatic loremaster trait, and a force hammer that strikes at initiative.
He is 55 more points than a base GM.
But because a normal upgrade of psyker mastery is 25 pts, and a hammer is 10pts. He is only actually 20 pts more for his buffs than a grand master is.
I think for what he is in the grey knights book he is a good price provided he is an HQ choice even if he is expensive compared to other HQs from space marine armies he is the right cost for the GK army.
Pablo does have a point with Voldus, in truth.
He is expensive, and as a Grey Knight that’s an army REALLY struggling for bodies.
Is he better than a Grandmaster? Totally. Is he better than TWO level 3 Librarians for roughly the same cost? Harder to accept that.
He CAN be useful, no doubt… But not with GK unfortunately 🙁
I agree he’s a GK character which benefits being included in other armies more than GKs. Assuming he can plug and play in any imperium army
Waiting to see formations before I make a call which character is best.
GK could already roll on the AoD powers…I thought?
I think gk can already use angel of death powers, it was mentioned in an faq. Also draigo’s sword is ap2 as well. The lord of war point is key as he is a lot more affordable. But like you say pablo, if you’re playing grey Knights you’re.probably not trying to be competitive anyway!
Nothing in the official FAQs mentions it (looked in the BRB, Space Marines, and GK FAQs).
It’s listed in the pack of the psychic cards that GK can use the new SM powers. I don’t know where else it might be listed since I just bought the cards and that was easy enough for me
You are correct the psychic cards for the Angels of Death powers granted GK access
https://goo.gl/images/py8uAF