July 7, 2011 by dignity
Darrell and myself discuss Lord Kaldor Draigo, one of the Grey Knights’ eight grand masters. Trapped in the warp, battling unending hordes of daemons he never gets a tea break and ventures forth to battle the chapter’s greatest foes.
BoW justin
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I agree with darrel, I had to facepalm after I read this guys codex pages, seriously, what were they thinking letting this guy’s fluff through proof reading.
I am so disappointed with how over the top the fluff is getting, though I guess it goes with the over the top codices. DUMB DUMB DUMB FLUFF. GW doesn’t seem to even care about the fluff anymore. (off to convince some friends to try Infinity)
Now I love over the top fluff, after all I play Space Marines and thus alot of stuff ends up being over the top. Hell the entire universe of 40k is over the top, but this guy just takes the taco and proves that even in 40k you can be too over the top. That said it does help that he sounds like he could be a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield, especially for Daemons.
On that note I havent seen a Daemon player in forever
I know of one Daemon player. And he gets spanked every time he plays.
This is what happens when you allow Mat Ward to get ahold of a codex. Not only does he give the army BS rules and add ridiculous characters that do not NEED to exist, he also RAPES all of the fluff. GW needs to let someone other than Mat Ward write an Imperial codex.
So basically… he’s better than the Emperor. WORST FLUFF EVER.
So basically you don’t realize how awesome the Emperor really is.
The guy who was put in a death-coma by a single demon-primarch, AFTER Sanguinius found the chink in his armour. Oh yeah, super-awesome.
“The Lord of Unkillableness” lol ! xD
Yeah, his fluff sucks, they’re going too far to try to please those kids who’ll buy the codex and try to impress their friends with it. Not all kids are like that mind you, some are really good players.
Anyway I feel the 40k universe has lost some of its subtlety over the last codices (Tyranids?). Thank the Emperor the Dark Heresy / Rogue Trader books are still there to remind us there are still good stories to be told.
You think this is bad, just wait until the Necron codex comes out and you have Necron Lord Chuck of the Norris Order running around removing d6+15 units from the game with a warp punch
I think you’re getting confused with his rules, the warp punch removes 2d6 units, it’s the warp round house kick that does d6+15
Don’t know what your chatting about Darrel. I proxied him in Store and he whipped a 5strong Thunder Hammer Termie squad on his own. I charged killed 3, took a wound back. 2nd round Kaldor cleaned up, even though h was striking at I1 with the hammer squad, and saved all his wounds. Even 1 unit of 5 paladins are worth 2 of any other unit, and to have them scoring without using the tactic power is AWESOME!
One question… what if you dont get the charge?
BoW Justin
just keep on fighting
Darrel says in this video that that would happen but i guess you weren’t listening
Have to agree with the guys, a lot of points for what you get really, even if you can ignore the lore breaking backstory.
Nice looking model though, as long as you use the helmet and ignore the bare headed version.
Just read the fluff of Draigo and sweet Jesus who thought that was acceptable? oO
Let’s begin with some of the stupidest fluff I have every read in any kind of literature:
His first action as new Grandmaster was to actually CUT the name of his predecessor into Mortarions heart, yep Mortarion the Demon Primarch of the Death Guard.
Aren’t Prirmachs supposed to be one of the mightiest beings in the Universe only bested by the Emperor himself and to top that Mortarion was a Demon Primarch? …..okay
Then he basically fights back an demon invasion alone.
Then when he’s stuck in the Warp he kills countless demons with his bare fists till he forges a new sword out of the axe from a Greater Demon of Khorne, probably with his bare fists and cleanses it from it’s demonic stain.
Then he burns down Nugles garden.
Then he kills Slaaneshs favourite concubines.
Then he when he stands before the gates to the Inevitable City and a Greater Demon of Tzeentch promises him a way home, he KICKS DOWN the city walls and buries the demon.
And NOW comes the best part (I own the german copy of the Codex so i’m not sure if it’s the same as in the english version) just one sentence kills all that is left that made the Chaos awesome and almighty.
It translates loosely like this: “Although the Chaosgods weren’t able to kill Daigo, he in return couldn’t achieve a meaningfull victory.”
So to get this straight the Chaos Gods themself, THE CHAOS GODS THEMSELF, couldn’t kill one puny mortal BUT this one little dude trapped in the Warp
burnt down Nurgels Garden, kills Slaaneshes favourite women, kicks down the city walls of the Inevitable City, at first slaughters countless demons with his fists, pulls a smithy out of his butt and forges a new sword with his bare hands, withstands every temptation and promise the Chaos Gods offer him and none of this actions counts as a meaningfull victory. …..good Lord in heaven who wrote this crap?
So basically Lord Kaldor Draigo is Space Chuck Norris on steroids.
It just makes me furious if I see such over the top bad writting. I know Space Marines are supposed to be awesome but come on they are still mortals.
And the best part is, in the Chaos Cemon Codex it states that the Chaos Gods are so powerful that they could wipe out the whole universe and existence itself in a second if they weren’t so occupied with their rivalrys.
Now we know that they aren’t even strong enough to kill one zealous Grey Knight, it’s pathetic.
P.S.: My English isn’t very good so please have mercy with my gramma and mistakes but I had to write down my thoughts on this matter.
— EDIT —
I had to remove your naughty words too. I understand you might be annoyed, but please don’t do it again.
BoW Andy
So basically you’re mad because he kicks daemon ass all over the place? Or just because it doesn’t make sense to you? It’s their fluff and that’s how it is. No point of getting über-angry on things like fluff.
People don’t seem to understand that nothing in the warp makes sense, so why would any of this? People are just to put rules and understand something that is impossible to understand. Such is the Warp.
The thing is people are annoyed because its not believable, which sounds strange but when we’re playing games a lot of us like to visualize it (I know I do anyway) and fluff helps us to do this. Yes he’s in the warp which is a strange place but to say that means the whole balance of the demons vs. grey knights thing suddenly goes awry there seems wrong to me, if anything demons should be stronger in the warp.
To correct this fluff I think Mat ward just shouldn’t have gone into the whole burning down the forest of nurgle stuff, and just said kaldor could be in the warp but he resisted demons influences and attacks, as if hes kinda running for his life in there until the next time he can help humans in reality again.
you know that fluff is what gives these games a life?
without fluff you would just be rolling dice, fluff turns this dice rolling into epic battles, duels between warrior of legends, or full-fledged invasions
so yes I get angry when I see such idiotic, crudedly written fluff with out sense or coherency
well, even if the fluff bites the big one,
at least the model is fun to paint…
you forgot the best part
all the stuff he’s done in the warp happen in the year 40,999 its been less than a year. granted the warp can make you feel like 10,000 years while its been 10 seconds in real time but still.
This dude is a points sinkhole of stupidness…
Palladins as troops… also stupid your never gunna afford more than 3 units period (they are the ubertroops tho).
Basically i feel stupider for reading about this and i actually agree with the general consesus of why the hell did they make this guy…
Surely if your gunna make a daft unkillable character he should be the Black Knight, who just doesn’t die. You can kill him but he doesnt care….u could even give him 1 attack with a wepskill of 2 at str10 and his cannot be killed by anthing rule (call it something like “it’s only a flesh wound”) make him cost 5 points and there you have a pointless but unbelievably more useful char than this monstrosity…
Gotta say i like his shield tho… ><
I feel cheated, he should have come with complementary Chesney Hawkses single. Guess Ill have to wait for the errata….
I will use his rules to play Captain Aurelian, the Grey Knight that banished Mortarion, assisted by a Company of Grey Knights, the combined might of the Salamanders, Space wolves and an Imperial Army group.
I will burn his fluff, sprinkle it with sacred incense, say thirteen prayers to the emperor, burn it again and hide whats left in the deepest vault of Titan. Yes it is that bad!
Did Marvel comics team up with GW or something? This guy sounds like he’s ready to take on Magneto, Wolverine, and the Hulk or some other character.
Marvel? pfft I was beginning to think he was 40k’s answer to the Batman. So lord Draigo you killed a greater demon of Khorne? burned down the forest of Nurgle, kicked over Tzeentch’s city and smacked around some of Slaanesh’s keepers how have you managed all this by yourself well trapped in the warp?
Well Tom, I use my patented can of Gray Knight Demon repellent. I keep it right here on my utility belt. oh and I had my ring made from a shard of the armour of the immortal emperor its like kryptonite to demons.
Andy, it reads “Yet, if the Dark Gods could not vanquish Draigo, then nor could Darigo win any meaningful victory.” So the same stuff with fancier words, great work on the translating. If you want to scream, go read “The Founding” on p. 6-7.
Yeah, I have no clue what Matt Ward was thinking with this. I don’t mind a little over the top, but was this revenge for Grey Knights having to be better than his vaunted Ultramarines?
As to Draigo on the table top, he is incredibly expensive, but the most solid character in the book. While a lot of players are trashing him, this is from their misguided opinion that everything HAS to be tournament worthy and at most 200 points.
For a nice fun army, Draigo and his paladins will be interesting. And he is a handful when he starts mixing it up in CC. The model is pretty good too, if you use the helmet.
True. Thing is many people that are trashing Draigo and other Characters as useless, didn’t even try them in actual play. It’s easy to jump into the hate bandwagon against Ward and any other thing they don’t like in the book.
I’ve seen Draigo in many lists. And none have claimed crap on him.
He sounded like a really cool character i i might wanted to field him if I played GK’s but when you said he costed 275 pts i just started laughing.
I DON’T UNDERSTAND!!!!!!!!!! How can you not think that Draigo is pure awesome sauce? Yes his fluff might be a bit silly but his rules are definately not. he has a 2+ invulnerable save in close combat and a 3+ when not but why would you not have him in close combat all the time? 4 force weapon attacks at str 5 means that anything but rival space marines will be easily cut to ribbons his toughness 5 combined with 4 wounds and eternal warrior mean that he is virtually impossible to kill. stick him in a unit of paladins with an apothecary and he gets fnp as well! Paladins are ownage! their 2 wounds and higher ws mean they can take on enemy squads 3 times their size and win. give 2 of them psycannons and psy bolt ammunition and your rocking out s8 ap 4 heavy 4 Ownage plus str 5 storm bolters awesome! Draigo makes them troops and yes they are hideously expensive but in my opinion worth every point and so is Draigo.
There’s actually a good thing about his fluff being so broken… I’m gonna feel so happy when I kill him with MAH LAZGUNZ !!!
Lasguns?! Can lasguns even hurt something that is toughness 5 arent they like str 2 or something? 🙂
Don’t hate.
Lasguns can take down a Trygon on a good day lol
Haha xD Yeah lasguns can (and will) kill anything as long as it’s toughness 6 or less ! :p They’re S3 and I love em =D
Lasguns are st3 and will wound him on a 6. It might not sound like much, but when you have 80+ shots coming at you it hurts.
ahh my most hated rule in the Imperial Guard, nothing feels like a kick in the nuts as seeing your Trygon getting lasguned to death by 30 guards and one silly order
making them troops doesnt really have anything to do with the field allowance, the important factor is that its going to allow them to claim objectives.
I can only imagine that GW made the decision to make their stories for the group of maybe 11 to 16 year old players. When i was that young, those bloody stories without any sense were still somehow “cool”, and the movies I watched back then… well lets not talk about it.
For adults, these kind of stories are ridiculous, but maybe its just that GW’s main customer group are kids. I don’t know how the customer age is distributed, but i can’t imagine GW doing those crappy stories for adults…
But its disappointing never the less.
Hey im 16 and i think the fluff is stupid too.
Not all teenagers love random, senseless violence you know.
And that I didn’t say. Sorry if you feel insulted.
If you are looking stuff for more mature audiences, then you are looking in the wrong place. WH40k is a fantasy game first and foremost. You’ll just have live with stuff that makes no sense at all.
You want serious stuff, try pocker.
But being Fantasy or SciFi doesn’t mean that it has to be stupid. Theres a lot of awesome Fantasy and ScifFi stuff out there.
And the thing is that some years ago, the stories in 40k were not as stupid as they are now. So while everything in the 40k universe is exagerated, i don’t think the 40k fluff is for children only per se. If they wanted, they could make some cool stories. At least thats what i think.
You spilled your Warhammer in my Twilight.
No, you spilled your Twilight in my Warhammer.
People are actually surprised about the horrendous fluff, considering the codex is written by Matt “Spiritual Liege” Ward? I was surprised there wasn’t any mention about the Grey Knights striving to be more like the Ultramarines.
I tried Draigo out a couple of days ago and his only weakness is his low attacks, but that isn’t why you take him.
Stick him in a Paladin unit with an Apothecary and this guy becomes nigh invulnerable and even then, this is before you play with the wound allocation.
I tried Draigo with a 5 man Paladin Squad which had an Apothecary with Staff, 1 Paladin with Incinerator and Falchions, 1 Paladin with Psilencer and Falchions, 1 Paladin with Brotherhood Banner, 1 Paladin with Falchions. This is an insanely expensive unit, but it is really really good at chewing through any infantry you can put against it.
The Banner gives Draigo that extra attack that he needs to put him from mediocre troop killer to good troop killer and with Hammerhand making him Str 6, he is outstanding at killing MCs and Troops. Still not convinced??? The Falchion armed Paladins with carve up any troop unit stupid enough to attack them – they have 5 attacks each with a Brotherhood Banner and 6 on a charge!!! There is you troop killing power.
As for staying power, Draigo in this unit is just unkillable – Wound Allocation, 2+sv (3+inv), 4+ FNP save. Yes the unit is expensive, but as Death Stars go, this unit takes some beating.
And Eternal Warrior on Draigo + All the above = Insanity!!!
hes not a unit i can see being used in many serious tournaments but he is great fun to use.
That’s it right there, Maybe squeezing him into a “Everything Scores” list, but other than that, he is a a solid character.
The comparison to Azag made in the video is wrong. Draigo is in the neighborhood of Sanguinor, Dante, Calgar, Grimnar, Mephiston, etc.
Azag is literally nothing good for ludicrous amounts of points. The above all provide something worthwhile while paying decently for it.
Yeah he doesn’t seem THAT bad. He has to be pricey as he is supreme grand master of the grey knights, but as you say he’s not like Azhag who does very little good. I predicted on seeing the codex kaldor paladin lists to be the trend, not sure how right that is.
I never thought about the everything scores force – Lols, there goes my night of work… Where’s my codex, pad and pen???
His fluff is merely Imperial Propaganda, the story is written from the imperial point of view as a legend spread by word of mouth. Who else was there at the time he was doing all this? Noone. What proof does he have of his tall tales? None. It is merely his explanation of how he survived being in the warp which the nieve Imperials are foolish enough to believe. Who but the Chaos Gods themselves know what truely happens in the warp? And (to paraphrase) as the Chaos Daemon codex states “the Chaos Gods are to busy with their own rivalries to write about the actions of one mere mortal” …
I realy like that explanation anxt.
yeah, my brother came up with the same explanation but if it really was propaganda it should at least say so something like: ”the Grey Knights, tell once a year the legend or saga or whatever of Draigo (aka. Space Chuck Norris)”
then you could say: “well they just try to make them feel better”
but atm it looks like it really is the real story and that is unacceptable
You people really need to look at the wider picture here about his fluff, being a Supreme Grand Master ( in terms of office his rank is the same as a Primarchs since Grand Masters =Chapter Masters) he is going to be able to do most of those things (The heart thing with Mortarion i do find hard to beleive but how do we know if Geronitan the Supreme Grand Master before him wounded Mortarian so dont yam about this as there is little to no detail about this) and for all we know he could be truly gifted by the Emperor and Malcador. He is also going to have a vast amount of Combat experince under his belt anyway so alot of things he did in the warp are not inconceivable. Also dont blame Mat Ward I’d like to see you froobs write a codex (dont say you could, thats just big headed as he as other people helping him with it getting info etc)
it’s a fool who looks for logic in the chambers of the chaos heart.
whine and whine, but i would rather silly over priced characters than silly under priced ones that make anything but an ueber character not worth taking.
exactly, though it would be better if they were just competitively priced 😛 haha
Eternal Warrior, strength and toughness 5, 4 wounds, and “only 5 attacks”!!! Quit your belly aching knuckle heads.
You can make Draigo Str 7 if he uses Hammerhand and a Librarian uses might of titan on him. And his sowrd is a force weapon so it can inflict instant death. I think he’s more of a giant slayer such as carnifexs, wraithlords etc.
Give him a squad of paladins with a banner and an apothecary and as said before he will become nigh unstoppable. A lot of people will probably also realise this so will either try and shoot as much as they can at him and his squad meanign the rest of your army gets ignored or they ignore him and his squad and then have that feeling in the back of their head that when he gets close enough he’s going to start causing a major headache.
I sat down and read it, was not really impressed, I would say from my point of view Games Workshop has problems with its background material or fluff if you want, consistency is one thing, but blowing out of proportion the already larger than life style the 40K background is near or sometimes as this one, over the line of been ridiculous to the point it downgrades the overall background of the IP.
True, the 40K is made with the stuff of legends and legends are larger than life, but, his story is larger than that, trifling even the deeds of other heroes in his own codex, sterns background is trifled, his personal vendetta with M’Kachen, is ridiculous when put in context that Draigo went to his city and defeated him thoroughly at least once, the same greater daemon Stern finds so difficult to defeat and acts as his Nemesis.
Likewise, Grimnar’s greatest battle was the first battle of Armageddon, where an entire company of grey knights was needed to bring down the daemon Primarch and his bodyguard
and while the details in Draigo’s fluff is not detailed, it is implied he alone defeated Mortarion so conclusively that had the time to carve his predecessors name on his hart, trifling both the first battle of Armageddon and the power of Primarchs at the same time, Draigo is a marine that should have been remembered when his background was written, he beat up alone a demon Primarch and while the struggle of Emperor and Horus was brought up again, I will bring it back here, a lone marine fortified to the horrors of daemons takes on and wins a daemon Primarch, Sanguinious been wounded by a greater daemon fell to Horus, but as fluff would have it he didn’t stand a chance even at his peak and the Primarchs were individuals of unimaginable power, growing to even grater power with daemonhood, what meaning has the sacrifice of Sanguinious, the emperor, of a company of grey knights in Armageddon, if a lone individual can just kill a deamon primarch and with the attributed ease Draigo did? it was a poor decision in my opinion and a bad move in general, if Games Workshop reputedly does not want to publish primarch stats to not downgrade them, then they should remember it in their backgrounds too and not have mere mortals doing things their biggest legends never did.
Coming on the second part Games Workshop, in my opinion again, always had great problems in realising their background on the table, rules wise, Draigo cannot live to his name and legend, would it hurt them to make characters and units that can live up to their background? I usually hear if it matched the background it would be tremendously unbalanced, well there is a solution to that tone the background down to be realisable in the table with the rules.
There are a few reasons I have distanced myself from 40K, how over the top its background has become and how it fails to be realised on the table is one of them.
Fluff = GAY for this. Makes no sense what so ever I am scared for the Necrons.
Bloody hell. Draigo’s fluff is symptomatic of Ward’s terribad writing. I wish GW would put Ward back in his LoTR box so 40k can go back to its awesome 3rd ed style Grimdark aesthetic. That’s what attracted me to the game in the first place, not some fairy hero-hammer crap.
http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Grimdark
Give Draigo a squad of paladins with a brotherhood banner and an apothecary and if you can stretch it get a librarian somewhere near him. Gets an extra attack from the banner and he can use hammerhand and then the librarian can use might of titan on him and quicksilver. So on the charge against any non psyker or daemon you get 6 str 7 i10 attacks that cause instant death. You can only use him in larger scale games but im sure once you have him out and about he will be cutting everything down that gets too near to him.
Methinks he’s an Apoc Grandmaster
well maybe as he was in the warp demons tricked him into thinking he accomplished all those tasks so he would tell al his frineds to trick them into thnking they were weak………demons work in muysterious ways
Nice to see the greenskin players won’t be the only ones screwed this year…
Whats funny is in my army I am renaming him to Lord Kaldor Diego. Go explore the warp my friend.
Best video ever made 😀
Don’t knock this guy down until you play or play against him. The only time this guy died when I played him was when I rolled two ones Fluff wise I guess you can say he went back to the warp. Speak of fluff it’s to damn crazy. I can see killing a few big name demons but damn you think the Emperor was he guardian angel or some thing. Well maybe one of the chaos gods said hmm… I think I know how to screw with every one with this? I don’t know, demons not for ever dead I ever understand. But as a piece your going to get your points worth.
I think it’s great you reuploaded this and I want to ask if it would be possible for you to reupload the assembling of the tyrnid heirophant from forge world ( the big titan sized beastie ), that would make my week, thanks.
hmmm, even though this is old i see alot of people trying to make sense of the story. Number 1 its the warp.
2 their are different lvl of deamons
3 deamon gods are not all powerful, they have a measure of power and a degree.
4 when you have rivals and something else comes along you really dont have time to deal with it yourself.
5 how does it look like to any of those gods having to deal with this human personally. you loose clout and the other gods you have rivals with think you are weak.
6 while space marines are strong, grey knights in all their fluff take it to another lvl all sorts of attributes.
7 Hes a Freaking Grand master. You dont become one of those just by being a trans human. You extend to the lvl of demi god and that is what this guy is. He does have the gene seed from the emperor who also could stand in the warp with no problem
8 One thing about the warp that i have seen is this, while deamons dont have natural spirits like humans and are slaves to a boss who give them a measure of power, A human has zeal and can be fearless.
9 Grey knights have many tools from deamonic possession. brought into the real world. Cleanse them and use them against your enemy who dont like deamonic weapons.
10. One thing everyone seems to forget is that he has a 3+ invul save along with a 2+ regular save and he cant be killed by one wound. so hes mefistan on crack.
11. The warp has no logic to it. This is why the name of the place is called “WARP” Nothing makes sense in a human logical attribute and grey knights who have their base half and half in real world and the warp know this already especially The grand master. He knows secrets and how to deal with deamons. majority of the time the dont go near him.
12. How do deamons make their weapons. Practically Just like we do they forge them just with magic. go to a deamon forge and make your weapon. The guy can also conjure fire so i am sure he is pretty much set.
All in all drop human logic and put your yourself in an impossible realm. If you try and use human logic it will never make sense. It is the warp so things are suppose to be warped DUHHHHH