The Brotherhood Champion is a powerful officer of a Brotherhood who is meant to act as the bodyguard for a Brother-Captain or Grand Master. He is the only Grey Knight HQ (as in not Inquisitor) who does not have Terminator Armour but, just like the other HQs, is a very support based model. His main ability is Titan's Herald, a special rule meaning on a turn in which you charge an opponent, you can re-roll hits with the Brotherhood Champion and his squad, while the Brotherhood Champion always re-rolls failed to Wound rolls due to his Force Sword.
The Brotherhood Champion also serves another role. He is the perfect Independent Character killer. Looking at the Brotherhood Champion's stat line (Weapon Skill 7 and one Wound), he is meant to be able to hit things easily without offering too much in terms of defensive ability. If he had a higher Weapon Skill, it would be more difficult to hit him if you were Weapon Skill 4 (the average somewhat-assaulty unit weapon skill), but alas he does not. Combine this with his Perfect Warrior special rule and Heroic Sacrifice, meaning each assault phase he can only adopt one stance, and you can see this clearly.
Each assault phase, the Brotherhood Champion must adopt one of the following stances:
The most powerful of these is Rapier Strike, if you ask me. In most situations, you aren't going to be in base contact with more than three models, and Blade Shield means your enemy simply won't direct attacks at you if he has the option. Blade Shield does allow you to tarpit pretty well, however, it just won't save you from having only one wound. Rapier Strike, however, allows you to knock out a powerful HQ before he has the chance to act. Heroic Sacrifice will make sure of this.Sword Storm: He makes a single attack on every enemy model in base contact with him. (No bonus for charging other than reroll hits). These attacks seem to be against the model, not a unit, and can hit "hidden" models such as squad Sergeants.
Blade Shield: The Brotherhood Champion does not attack but may re-roll failed saves this phase.
Rapier Strike: The Brotherhood Champion makes D3 Attacks (D3+1 on the charge) at Initiative 10 against a single Independent Character or Monstrous Creature in base contact.
Heroic Sacrifice is a psychic power which is used upon losing your wound in close-combat. If successful, you make an attack roll against one model in base contact. If you hit, that model is removed with no saves allowed. This is incredibly powerful. You are probably going to want to try to save your psychic power for this, but if you are able to take out a 250 point Land Raider or 275 point Sanguinor with your 100 point HQ, that's a great trade. That's right; from how I read the rules you can kill a vehicle in base contact with your Brotherhood Champion. And you may auto-hit if the vehicle didn't move. Just watch out for Psychic Defense, as that will stop your one-hit-kill schemes.
This all being said, the guy is a bit gimmicky. If you can't pull off a massive kill like that, he's pretty much not doing much other than giving re-rolls to hits and casting Hammerhand with Leadership 10.
As for Wargear options, there is literally no reason to purchase a Digital Weapon. Absolutely none. I mean: NONE. I've emailed GW about this but they never got back to me. The other options, Brain Mines and Psybolt Ammo. Sure, having an extra point of strength on your Storm Bolter is nice, but it isn't anything special. A nice 5 point dump if you are looking for one. Brain Mines are pretty good, as you are already focusing on killing Independent Characters. However, you'll be attacking them (and hopefully killing them) at Initiative 10, so whether or not they get to attack is not that big of a deal.
If you were to take one of these guys, I would recommend to do so on an assault oriented squad, such as Purifiers with Halberds and Daemonhammers or Terminators; turning a meh assault squad to a much stronger one on the charge. However, you are spending a valuable HQ spot and 100 points on this guy, so I'm not sure if it is entirely worth it. If you are looking to make a "Pure" Grey Knight army and you're not taking Terminators, he's pretty much your only choice, though.
That's it for the unit review. Overall, I would say this guy is a one-job-wonder and it's a job that isn't really needed. However, he does have his uses (such as sniping out Logan Grimnars, etc.) and if anyone has had any success using him in another manner, let me know!
Until next time,
Xethik