40K: The Knight Time Is The Right Time
Imperial Knights are back in a big way. Whether it’s their new models, or their new rules for creating a custom champion, there’s something for any Knights player to be excited about. Here’s a Knightly roundup.
Yes, it seems that Imperial Knights are here to stay. With four new kits announced (assuming you count Warglaives as new), and two more in the works (to be released at an unspecified “later), there’s a host of new options to play around with. Whether it’s adding the fast and firepower focused Armiger Helverins, or the massive “close-range” chassis for the Dominus class knight, there’s a Lord of War to suit every playstyle. So since we’re talking about the Dominus Knights… let’s take a look at them. They’re a Lord of War’s Lord of War.
There’s also the Armiger Helverins out this week, here’s a look at their unboxing, in case you missed it.
But the real heart of this week’s releases, and the Imperial Knights is their new Codex. It’s fantastic, especially considering what the Imperial Knights are as a faction. For a Faction with so few units, the new Codex adds so much. Whether you’re looking to field an army that’s entirely Knights, or to grab a detachment full of a sweet custom Knight, you can find rules for it in the Codex.
This Codex feels pretty exciting, folks. Though there are only a few new units, the tweaks in this book, and the introduction of the stratagems, relics, and warlord traits makes a huge difference. It adds customization to the Knights. Gives you room to dig in and create a unit that’s not just a Knight Preceptor, but your Knight Preceptor.
They give you rules you can use when running a couple of Armigers up a flank–things that feel exciting to play. That’s what I keep coming back to–Knights feel fun and exciting to play. With rules like Rotate Ion Shields (which how do you not shout that when you’re activating the stratagem) or Death Grip, which lets you crush an enemy in your Thunderstrike gauntlet or equivalent–you can do things that other armies just can’t.
And all the while you’re stomping around in your giant robot–it’s just fun. And the rules support that. There are one or two weird choices. There are two houses with basically the same rule, only one is just objectively more powerful than the other (rerolling failed hit rolls when charging or charged, vs. rerolling failed hit rolls in the fight phase, and adding +1 to hit when charging or charged). They had to make some fairly complicated ruling so that you can field a Knight army and not have it be unbalanced. If you want a Knight Detachment, it doesn’t give you any command points unless it includes at least two big Knights.
But all in all Knights are a very fun army to play. The new codex has me excited to dive in and build my own Knights–just to see what I can bring to the table. If you like giant robots, if you like hard hitting weapons that will obliterate the enemy (if you can hit), and if you like heroism, then the Imperial Knights might be the army for you.
If there was an Imperial Knight STC located on Phobos, would that make it a Good Knight Moon?
