This book has made a bigger splash in the meta than a Carnifex being hurled back into a spawning pool after being crushed by a thunderstrike gauntlet. Why you ask? Well, my friend, you have come to the right blog.
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The first set of knights are basically several different ways to arrange 4 guns and 2 combat weapons. You've got the Preceptor, Paladin, Errant, Gallant, Warden, and Crusader with various configurations of the las-impulsor, rapid fire battle cannon, thermal cannon, avenger gatling cannon, reaper chainsword, and thunderstrike gauntlet. I'm not going to get into which one can carry which weapons cause that is not really important, but there are 2 slight differences and that is that the Preceptor gives a re-roll 1's to hit aura to nearby Armiger class units (more on them later) and the Gallant has a WS of 2+ to start. The important thing to discuss is the weapons.
First up we have the las-impulsor, which is a new weapon and available only to the Preceptor. It has 2 fire modes, low intensity (36" heavy 2D6 S6 AP-2 D3 damage) and high intensity (18" heavy D6 S12 AP-4 D6 damage) which is nice because it gives you options. It is only available to the Preceptor though, but if you're planning on taking a number of Armigers, you might want to think about taking this guy. Next we have the rapid fire battle cannon which is 72" heavy 2D6 S8 AP-2 D3 damage. This is a good reliable weapon with great range and diversity. It has a good number of shots, high S, decent AP and multiple damage. It works well against light vehicles and light - medium infantry. The thermal cannon gets fewer shots at a shorter range, D6 at 36", but it's S9 AP-4 and D6 damage (with the melta rule) makes it more ideal for taking out vehicles and tougher monsters without invul saves. The last gun is the avenger gatling cannon which excels at taking out infantry and lighter vehicles with it's 12 S6 AP-2 D2 shots. The reaper chainsword and thunderstrike gauntlet are not that different, the former being S14 AP-3 and 6 damage while the latter is S16 AP-4 6 damage with a -1 to hit. The gauntlet has an additional little trick, if it kills a vehicle or monster it can cause D3 mortal wounds on an enemy unit within 9" on a 4+, which is kinda neat.
The Armigers are a new design of knight that come in 2 varieties, Halverines and Warglaives. They are significantly easier to kill than their larger counterparts with only T7 and 12 wounds, thus their nickname of baby knight.
The Halverines are armed with 2 armiger autocannons, 2D3 shots each at S7 AP-1 and 3 damage makes them a threat to medium and large sized targets with average saves. The Warglaives come equipped to deal with more heavily armoured enemies rocking a thermal spear, a 30" assault D3 meltagun. It is also toting around a reaper chain cleaver, a melee weapon with 2 modes of attack, Sx2 AP-3 and 3 damage OR AP-2 and 1 damage but 2 hit rolls per attack. There is a key point here to remember, and that's that the thermal spears are assault weapons, meaning they can advance and still shoot them. There are some really nice combos with stratagems and traits and such, but I will get into those after I talk about...
The Dominus class Knights. If the Armigers are the Baby Knights, then the Dominus would be considered the Daddy Knight. Again, there are 2 varieties, the Castellan and the Valiant and they both tote two twin-meltaguns and a variance of siegebreaker cannons (48" Heavy 2D3 S7 AP-1 DD3) and shieldbreaker missiles (48" Heavy 1 S10 AP-4 DD6 it ignores invulnerable saves). The shieldbreaker missiles are a little strange in that they can only fire one per turn, and they are one use only, but they are a really good inclusion for reasons I will get to. They don't have access to any of the combat weapons that Questoris Knights have, and their WS is not as good, but they have 4 more wounds and their main weapons are DEADLY.
The Castellan is armed with a plasma decimator (48" Heavy 2D6 S7/8 AP-3 D1/2) and a volcano lance (80" Heavy D6 S14 AP-5 D3D3) and has been one of the most favourite units in the game as of late. This big guy excels at taking our larger targets and elite units at a range, safely behind a wall of infantry. If you don't want to sit back, then you can have a go with a Valiant and rock up with an 18" heavy 3D6 S7 AP-2 D2 auto hitting conflagration cannon. If that's not going to cause enough damage then how about the thundercoil harpoon, 12" heavy 1 S16 AP-6 D10. Yeah, 10 Damage! On top of that the TCH re-rolls failed hit rolls when targeting monsters or vehicles and then, to add insult to injury, does D3 mortal wounds if it has inflicted any damage. I really love this combo as it gives you some really strong anti infantry firepower followed up by a dick smash to the moon.
I have gone over the basics of the 3 different knights, and while all that seems pretty cool, they have a whole set of special rules and abilities that make them WAY better. Lets start with the "chapter tactics", or Household Traditions. These are further divided into Questor Imperialis and Questor Mechanicus. This doesn't really mean much except that there are certain stratagems that work for one or the other, and Questor Mechanicus ally better with Adeptus Mechanicus, but that is a discussion for another time.
House Terryn roll an extra D6 when advancing and charging and discard the lowest result. When you combine this with the Landstrider warlord trait(add 2" to advance and charge rolls), and the Full Tilt stratagem (charge after advancing) you will be getting across the table really quickly. This is an amazing combo for a Gallant, easily getting him across the table and into the enemy lines for a first turn charge. Once you're in their lines you can spend 3CP and attack again with the Terryn stratagem Glory in Honour.
House Griffith get an extra attack in a turn where they charge or perform a Heroic Intervention. Oh, and they can all perform Heroic Intervention. If you want to know some of the benefits of Heroic Intervention, check out my Tactics Talk on Heroic Intervention. How many times can I say Heroic Intervention in one paragraph? Tack on the Bonded Oathsmen stratagem and your Armigers are moving 6" when they perform a...you know what.
House Hawkshroud doubles the number of wounds remains when determining what profile they use on the damage table. This is pretty handy for since they don't get access to the Machine Spirit Resurgent stratagem. This house also has a pretty awesome stratagem that allows them to turn into Tau for a while and fire overwatch if an enemy unit declares a charge against an Imperium unit that is within 12" of the knight. This works pretty damn awesome with the Valiant and it's super duper heavy flamer.
House Cadmus re-roll wound rolls of 1 in the fight phase when attacking units which only contain models that have 12 wounds or less. This is ok for those times where you go tap dancing on a bunch of marines and then roll half a dozen 1's to wound, it won't come up often, but it's a killer when it does. Their personal stratagem allows them to shoot at a unit that arrived as reinforcements within 12" of them. This is a 3CP strat but you will likely kill whatever comes in unless it lands near a Gallant. Their warlord trait reduced wounds taken by 1 to a minimum of 1, this really adds to their longevity as most of the weapons targeting them will likely do multiple damage.
House Mortan adds one to hit rolls in the fight phase if it charged, was charged, or performed a Heroic Intervention that turn. The good thing is that there are a handful of stratagems that can make HI available to your Knights. This is a pretty great House if you choose to go with a bunch of Gallants, bringing their to hit back up to 2+ with those thunderstrike gauntlets. Now their stratagem is a bit messed up, it allows a unit to ignore ALL modifiers, good and bad, for a shooting phase. This does not specify that it's only hit rolls, so I would assume that this also applies to cover and any psychic powers that modify the toughness, saves, or to wound rolls. This would not apply to re-rolls, as they do not modify the roll at all. BUT, if it applies to all those modifiers, it would also apply to the AP of the weapons firing, as they apply a modifier to the save, so that's where the fucked up part comes in. If that is the case, then this really is only useful against Harlequins. Ironically the Mortan warlord trait gives a -1 to hit modifier when targeting it from more than 18" away.
House Raven are for those players who like to keep their models on the move. When they advance they treat all heavy weapons as assault, then they ignore the penalties for advancing and firing assault weapons. This is pretty great for those models with combat weapons who want to get close and fast, particularly the Warglaive Armigers who are already tearing it up the field. Raven has a pretty fancy stratagem that allows them to re-roll all 1's for that model in the shooting phase. This includes hit rolls, wound rolls, damage rolls, and rolls made to determine the number of shots a weapon makes. This is a prime candidate to be used on a Castellan Knight as nearly all of it's weapons are a random number of hits, and many of them are random damage. This houses warlord trait is pretty cool in that it basically ignores AP-1. Now you might not think that this is that big of a deal but auto cannons, including the ones on the Halverines and on Predators which are damage 3, just got a whole lot harder to hurt you.
House Taranis gets 6+ FNP. Now, that does not sound like much but with 24 wounds it's likely to save 4 wounds. Taranis is also a Questor Mechanicus house, which means that Adeptus Mechanicus tech-priests can repair them and with the right warlord trait and stratagem you can repair up to 4 wounds each battleround. You can then give them the Ion Bulwark warlord trait which gives them a 4++, or you can give them Sanctuary which is a relic that gives them a 5++ that they can use in combat as well. You can boost those to a 3++ or 4++ respectively with Rotate Ion Shields. There is also the relic Armour of the Sainted Ion which gives the knight a 2+ save. If you don't want better saves, then Mark of the Omnissiah just gives you wounds back at the start of your turn. Either way you split it, you are looking at a nearly indestructible beast. If the worst should come to bear and your knight is taken down, then Taranis have their own very special stratagem. Our Darkest Hour is played once a knight is reduced to 0 wounds and does not explode, on a roll of 4+ the knight stands back up at the end of the phase (that's important) with D3 wounds remaining.
House Krast re-roll failed hit rolls in the fight phase in any turn it charged, was charged, or performed a HI. If the target has TITANIC keyword then you re-roll all the failed hit rolls all the time. Those re-rolls will help you with their stratagem Controlled Agression which turns each unmodified hit roll of 6 into 2 hits, or 3 hits if the target is a CHAOS unit. Imagine a Gallant with the Knight Senaschal warlord trait (+1 A) and the Headsman's Mark relic (+1D vs unit with 10+ wounds or 2D vs unit with TITANIC). He's like a Renegade Knight hunter. Their warlord trait is meh as it lets them re-roll hit rolls of 1, which is ok for shooting, but just overlaps their house rules.
House Vulker re-rolls hit rolls of 1 with ranged weapons when you target the closest enemy unit. Combine this with their stratagem Saturation Bombardment, which turns hit rolls of 6 into 2 hits, and with the relic Endless Fury which is an avenger gatling cannon with the same rule, hit rolls of 6 become 4 hits! Now the Vulker warlord trait is an odd one, but it could really go along way to keep your knight safe from those really big hitters. Wound rolls of 1, 2, and 3 made against your knight automatically fail. Here is the weird part, is this considered a modification to the wound roll? If your opponent can re-roll failed wound rolls, does this rule take place after re-rolls happen or before? I don't know, but I would argue that it's a modification, so re-rolls would happen before this effect would be applied. Really this would only apply to things that are S16 that can re-roll to wound.
So we have gone over the meat of the book, now we come to the trimmings. All those tasty side dishes and appetisers that take a meal from good to great, and there are a lot of them. In fact, for a book with so few units, it has the most stratagems and relics of any other book I have reviewed, a full 8 pages in total and because of that I will not go over them all, but I will touch on a few favourites.
The first group of stratagems are all ways to get in a few extra attacks and deal some mortal wounds to your target. Thunderstomp, Chainsweep, and Deathgrip are all 1CP and a really great way to get in some mortal wounds, which is a bit of a sore spot for this army. They are all activated immediately after fighting with a knight, which means that if it's your turn, this stratagem will circumvent getting interrupted which is critical. Thunderstomp is decent because you don't need a combat weapon to pull it off, so the Dominus class guys can use it. On a roll of 4+ one unit within 1" takes D3 wounds. Sure it's not great, but it's a clutch play if you can take the last couple wounds off of that BA Slam-Captain before he can swing. Chainsweep can be done by any knight with a reaper chainsword or one of the relics, you roll a D6 for each enemy model within 3" and it's unit takes a mortal wound on a 6. This one is pretty great for taking out a couple more plaguebearers before they can get all their multiple wound shenanigans off and wreck face, as they typically come in pretty big numbers. Death Grip, oh boy do I love this one. Immediately after the knight attacks, and has a fist or relic fist, it can make an extra attack against a unit that consists of a single model with 1", if it hits the model takes D3 mortal wounds.
We are not done though, because next you roll off adding your respective strength characteristic and if you win the target takes another D3 mortal wounds... then you keep doing that strength roll off until he ties or beats you, or dies.
This means you can direct your full compliment of attacks against the thing you want to kill and use this strat to pick off that character. Now, the target of the Death Grip has to be a unit that was declared as a target of the Knights Charge, so you can't grab anything more than 12" away, but if it's a single model character there is usually not much harm in declaring it as a target of a charge.
Here is something crazy to think about, a House Terryn Gallant Knight charges, fights, uses one of the strats, then fights again with Glory in Honour and uses another strat for more mortal wounds. Sure that's 5 CP you're spending to make that happen, but it's worth it. I guess you don't really have to fight first to use the extra attack strats, but the extra pile in and consolidation will help you with targets.
Heirlooms of the Household and Exalted Court stratagems allows a Questoris or Dominus Knight (or 2) to take a relic or warlord trait. It also turns them into a someone by making them a CHARACTER You will likely see this in every Knight detachment that consists of more than one knight because there are some great relics and warlord traits.
The Oathbreaker Guidance System has some potential to be a real serious game changer. It allows a Dominus Knight to target a character regardless of if it's the closest model, or if it's even in line of sight, with a shieldbreaker missile. Yes you can only shoot one of these missiles at a time, most Knights have only been taking 2 of these missiles, and it is a 3 CP stratagem, but being able to pick off the warlord regardless of where he is on the table is pretty damn strong.
The last strat on my list is the one that frustrates the hell out of me. Devastating Reach is a resolution to a stupid problem. If you're in the dark on this I'll elaborate. Models that are in ruins and above the ground floor can't be hit in combat by a knight, it's stupid I know, but that's how the rules are right now. This stratagem allows a Knight with a combat weapon to attack a model in a ruin if it ends it's assault phase 6" vertically from it. So the target of the charge can be on a level 6" above the table and the Knight can still attack it. THIS SHOULD BE A GENERAL RULE! NOT A FUCKING STRATAGEM! It doesn't even really work that well, it might seem like it's a decent patchwork solution, but when you read it you can find a glaring hole. If there are any models from the target unit on the ground floor then the Knight can't use this stratagem. Now you are probably thinking "Well if they are on the ground floor then what's the big deal?" Knights can't go through walls, so all the other player has to do is put one model on the bottom floor on the other side of the wall and the rest of the models can go in the upper floors and they are totally safe from being assaulted. Maybe I'm being picky, but this feels like a very patchwork slapped together bandaid of a solution to a problem that they created in the first place. Devastating Reach should be a general rule that is given to certain models of a certain size, like Mortarion, Magnus, most Knights, and probably most Lords of War. Hell, even Dreadnoughts and monsters should have a 3" version of this rule.
I've talked about many of the relics already in this article, but there are still a few that need some attention. There are a bunch of weapons, most weapons have a relic version or 2 which is basically a better version of the original, no real surprise there so I won't waste much time on them. I do want to point out House Griffith's relic, the Mark of the Lance, which deals D3 mortal wounds on a 2+, or 3 mortal wounds on a 6, after the bearer completes a charge. That's cool, but you can also combo that with the Griffith Warlord trait, Master of the Joust, that deals D3 mortal wounds on a 4+ after the knight charges. That means, after the knight charges, on a 2+ it deals D3 mortal wounds, on a 4+ it does 2D3 mortal wounds, and on a 6 it does 3+D3 mortal wounds.
Another great relic is the Helm Dominatus, admittedly you will have to design an army around it in order to take full advantage of it. Once per battle round, at the start of your shooting or fight phase you can shoot an enemy unit within 24" of the bearer (Questoris or Dominus class only) and all Armiger class Knights get +1 to hit against that unit. This is a great combo with Skyreaper Protocols or Pack Hunters, having a pack of robotic giants tear apart a nearby target or blast it from the sky with overlapping fields of fire.
That's all for the nuts and bolts of the Imperial Knight, but before I move on, I would be a fool if I did not mention Renegade Knights. These bad boys don't get any of the relics, or stratagems, or warlord traits, or house rules, which sounds bad, and it is. BUT, their 2 stratagems are actually pretty good (Rotate Ion Shields and re-roll all failed hit rolls in shooting OR fight phase) and the Charcater Knight of your detachment CAN SUMMON DAEMONS. One other fairly significant difference is that the Renegade Questoris Class Knights can take any combination of the ranged weapons available to them. Meaning they can take 2 of the same gun, which is something the loyalists can't do.
Are they worth it? Well it's not going to be a surprise when I tell you yes, you've seen them all over the place at every tournament since the book was released. Even with the FAQ increasing the CP of a couple of their key stratagems and making the CP you do have far more valuable, they are still incredibly powerful. They have the firepower of a Leman Russ (without sponson weapons), and actually, with the increased BS and the ability to move your full range and still shoot 2D6 battle cannon shots it's more like 1.5 Leman Russ and that's if it only has one gun arm. It's more durable than 2 Leman Russ's with it's invulnerable save. It's combat prowess is about equal to that of 2 Death Company Dreadnoughts. Lastly it can walk out of combat and still shoot and charge, which fixes the problem that most things have that can shoot and fight. They typically spend their time doing one or the other, while the Knight can efficiently do both
There are a couple of things that Knights struggle to deal with, hordes and objectives. While a Knight is able to lay waste to a multitude of giant monsters, a 500 point Knight with battle cannon and gatling gun arms is only capable of killing 12 guardsmen or cultists, add 8 more if he can charge into combat. Now sure that seems like a lot of dead models, but it's only about 80 points worth, and less than 200 points worth of guardsmen or cultists can do the same. When armies are starting to have 100+ models, that are only really there to die, you're going to be in trouble when the rest of his army is designed to kill you. This actually goes hand in hand, in many ways, with the second issue, holding objectives. With only 4-8 models on the table (if you take Armigers), you are likely going to be outnumbered, which makes holding objectives hard especially when you start losing knights, and you will. There is a relic that will help you with that, giving one Knight "objective secured" and making it count as 10 models, but that is not going to help that much
While it is possible to take a pure Knight army and win games, even against hordes, Knights really get a chance to excel when they have help. AdMech can repair them when they take damage and are pretty decent at dealing with hordes of weak infantry, but they struggle with durability. IG can kill pretty much anything, but have a soft spot for combat where they start to fold like origami. Space Marines got a decent boost with the new Prepared Positions stratagem and they are a pretty well rounded army, sort of a jack of all trades master of none, but they are not very points efficient compared to other things in this game. Knights can fill in all these gaps in these armies, while they fill the gaps in the Knights army.
Now go forth with this knowledge and lead the great and terrible mechanical beasts onto the battlefield, or use it to destroy them. Either way is fine with me.
Until next time, keep them dice rollin.
Maxx Collectible is starting up another escalation league starting in Orktober at 500 points. The last league was a resounding success and we are looking forward to a repeat season. Swing by if you live in the area and sign up. It only requires you to play Warhammer and have fun, that's easy! Running along side the 40K league is a Kill Team league, and not only is there a league but there will be demo games being held on some weekends by a local player. Warhammer isn't the only thing happening at Maxx's, there's tons of games and hobby materials.
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