Warmachine: Bane Knights – Repack and More

1. You will always* be fielding a full unit. Ideally, you want one of these guys to die a turn to set off vengeance. A good opponent will try to either kill none of them, or all of them in a single go. It is a lot easier to kill six models than ten.
2. Ten weapon master attacks to the face is better than six
3. A lot of us know the pain of getting a min. unit in a box and being unable to find four more models to fill the ranks. This is unpleasant and newer players get spared this. Lucky.
4. If you’re dead-set on running a minimum unit, then you have the models for when more Banes are created throughout the game. Bonus!

 Why Bane Knights?

Because Banes are full of awesome wrapped in a layer of pain. A unit of weapon masters is bad enough. If you give them a target under Tartarus’ Curse, they get ridiculous. Oh, and they’re undead, so they won’t be scared of anything and all that ‘living model’ crap can go out the window. Their melee attack is good enough to hit most targets, although the heavier the better. Their defense is a bit lacking, but that’s why we bring them in full units.

There tends to be a debate that Bane Thralls are better than Bane Knights. I would say no. Bane Thralls are much easier to use, Bane Knights are much more flexible. At higher levels of gameplay, relying on stealth or tough is a ticket to suicide, and that’s about the only ‘advantages’ Thralls have over Knights. So what makes Bane Knights so good . . . aside from being more survivable with higher ARM?

Ghostly. Being able to ignore terrain saves your Ghost Walk ‘casters a good bit of focus, and opens up a lot more flexibility with the others. Oh, and we’re immune to free strikes. Did we mention we’ll be using any available terrain to keep us safe while ignoring any penalties for moving through it?
Vengeance. What’s better than ignoring terrain? Doing it with a free move. What’s better than being a weapon master? Having a free attack! Seriously though, between Vengeance and Ghostly, you can: set up some insane charge angles, get two effective rounds of stabbing in, and if there’s nothing else to do you’ve gotten even closer to the nice juicy bits of the enemy! If only PP would release Bane Knights as a full unit. . . oh wait! Did you not kill all of my Knights? Yeah. . . Bane Lance to the face. Twice.
Reach. Quite possibly the best ability a warrior model can have. This brings them to an effective total threat range of 13” with Vengeance (15” with Curse). The board control that a small based model with reach can have is simply amazing between engaging ranged units or threatening free strikes. There’s nothing quite as enjoyable as stabbing the hell out of something and (if it survives) being outside of their reach range. It’s more fun in groups because if your victim moves to punch you back, your buddies will probably finish the job before he gets there.

~Overall, if you are smart about how you use them, Bane Knights are (in my humble opinion) tied for the title of the best infantry available to Cryx. Extremely maneuverable, hard hitting, and not really easily removed. . . there’s a reason the other factions hate Bane Knights. To them I say: MOAR BANEZ!

-Spiderbite