As a longtime Imperial Guard player (over 1,200 painted models and counting) I’m always intrigued when I have an opportunity to change the way I fight with the mightiest force in the galaxy. Codex: Daemonhunters certainly gave me the opportunity to switch up my gaming and build towards a cool Daemonhunters army, set to purge the stain of Chaos from the face of any planet you care to mention.

The prime strength of the Imperial Guard lies in the enormous amounts of firepower they are able to bring to bear on the enemies of Mankind, but get them up close and the plucky courage of the man in flak armour tends to crumble against all but Grotz and Tau Fire Warriors.

After reading Codex: Daemonhunters I was keen to add a squad of Grey Knights in power armour to my army. Their wrist-mounted stormbolters will be able to put spit out as much fire as two or three squads of my Guardsmen and be more effective (BS 4, S4, 2 shots at 24" while moving). The Nemesis weapons carried by the squad, when combined with the excellent Initiative, Weapon Skill, and durability of a Space Marine, mean that any squad of Grey Knights will be much more effective in combat than my lasgun-clubbing troopers. To top things off, their ability to Deep Strike if taken as a Fast Attack Choice mean I can deliver them to the heart of the battle rather than forcing them to slog it out on foot across the dangerous battlefield of the 41st Millennium.

The only thing that can beat the inclusion of a squad of power-armoured Grey Knights will be the inclusion of a squad of the famed Grey Knights Terminators (so lovingly crafted by Jes Goodwin).

The only drawback to including Grey Knights in my army is that they cost 25 points per model and any good Imperial Guard commander knows that the 250+ points spent on the Grey Knights means 250+ points not spent on a three-squad platoon or two Basilisks. The most important thing to remember when including any Daemonhunter unit in your Imperial Guard army is to have a plan for that unit and always think about how they interact with the plan for your existing troops.

I had such a great time painting my Grey Knights in power armour, and the Grey Knight Terminators, that I added another squad of the shining new Grey Knights, this time with an incinerator – perfect for burning the daemons of the Warp. Looks like I have the beginnings of a new army on my hands...

With all of these elite warriors, I thought it was time to consider how I could flesh out my entirely Daemonhunters force and balance out their strengths and weaknesses. The Grey Knights are great at pumping out enormous amounts of medium strength firepower, great in combat, and highly mobile. They are also incredibly thin on the ground, often risking being outnumbered three or four to one. The Grey Knights also suffer from a lack of ranged tank busting ability.

To counter this in a larger Daemonhunters army I decided to build my Inquisitor Lord and his retinue around longer range, anti-armour, fire power. A psycannon for the Lord, two Veteran Guardsmen with plasma guns, a gun servitor with a plasma cannon, and two Sages provides a stable base of fire for the mobile army. Giving the squad a Chimera bulked out that ranged fire power and added to their mobility while allowing me to go to town with some cool modeling fun.

To overcome the lack of models (I always feel strange fielding less than 90 models) I added four squads of the most survivable troops available to standard Imperial Guard armies, the Stormtroopers. Four squads of the elite warriors to cover the gaps left by the thinly-spread Grey Knights. Two Stormtrooper squads in Chimeras and equipped with meltaguns for anti-tank roles and close range fire support, one squad equipped with grenade launchers on foot to advance steadily on objectives and help to deliver the super-cool Death Cult Assassins into the thick of combat, and finally a squad equipped with two plasma guns to add more shots to the base of fire set up by the Inquisitor Lord and his retinue.

I was keen to do more cool modeling on vehicles for the Grey Knights, so I added a Grey Knight Hero. This HQ choice allowed me to take a Grey Knight Dreadnought (with obligatory twin-linked lascannons) and a Grey Knight Land Raider, a model I’ve been itching to paint since its release.

When building a Daemonhunters army, whether you’re starting from scratch or adding to an existing Space Marine or Imperial Guard army, my advice to you is to look for an overall balance to the army. Start by building on your playing strengths and flesh out the gaps that appear later on. The most important thing to remember is to have fun. Have fun modeling, fun painting, and fun gaming!