Goatboy’s 40K Quick Thoughts: Giant Robot Fights!
Goatboy here with another look at the newest codex on the block – Imperial Knights. I have a soft space in the blackest reaches of my heart for those giant killer robots.
I think I have done about 20 knights total for clients and myself. Heck, I have done six evil Knights because I sold my first 3 and wanted three more. I even have two random kits sitting at home begging to be built as the king of the wrestling 40k – the Knight Gallant. But enough reminiscing let’s start with the good and the meh side of my codex review.
The Good
First of all, this is an actual codex. You have a fully fleshed out set of rules (not models but hey an Imperial Knight book shouldn’t have a ton of options), a ton of good stratagems, four friggin’ pages of relics, and the much-needed set of point adjustments. Overall I think the book is pretty good. Sure you will see some Knights slapped onto the standard “AM CP Battery” and then depending on how many Knights you want you could see either some utility, more close combat options, or just another form of Command Point addition. Let’s look at the things that stand out.
I like the new “bigger” Knight in the Knight Valiant. Its weapon loadout is pretty dang spicy with the super flamer we have seen (burning up all those Eldar flyers starting to come out of the woodwork), a cool harpoon that at least costs you 0 points, and enough miniguns to put a dent in some troop units. Overall I think this guy is pretty good and most Knight based list will probably have one. I know some people are going to throw down 3 (dang Mr./Mrs. Money Bags am I right) but I think the sweet spot is this guy, 2-3 Gallants, and then the much loved AM Battery.
Speaking of the Gallant Chassis – holy crap did they get good. The most significant change is gaining an extra attack and the amazing change of having a 2+ WS. Think about that a bit. A Knight Gallant will now push hard to get into combat (new Stratagem allows advance and charge plus a warlord trait that gives +2 to advances and charges) and once there hit for 15 tiny feet (Titanic Feet) attacks that hit on a 2+. If you want to get cheeky use one of the Households that allow you to reroll 1’s when you charge or get charged. That is a crap ton of Str 8 attacks that cause d3 damage each. Add to the fact he is the cheapest Knight, and you now have an extremely aggressive army that could see 3 (I forget I am bad at 40k – dang matched play rules) of these jerks with a small batch of Guard to regrow command points.
The basic Knight chassis dropped in points as well. The weapons did not for the most part – but I expected that. It felt like they needed just to change how you initially built the knight to make them more competitively priced. I think the Gatling one could have gone down or at least some of the other bits on there (heavy flamer for 17 always just seems too high).
The Households are a significant change up and give a lot of flavor to the army. I don’t think there is any clear winner beyond what you prefer for a playstyle. The Taranis household is my favorite right now. It gives all your Knights a 6+ FNP roll which is pretty handy when you are dealing with 24-28 wound robots. The Raven household also seems pretty powerful with allowing all your knights the ability to move, advance, and fire without any penalties with all your guns. Again if you want to go bonkers with assaulting robots – Griffith or Krast seem to be the best choice. Griffith gives you an extra attack (18 hits from Tiny feet??? yes please) and lets all your knights Heroic Intervention which seems pretty good. Krast enables you to reroll all your hit rolls in close combat if you charge or were charged this turn. Reroll 2+’s are pretty good I hear.
I talked a bit about the Warlord Traits, but there is a nifty stratagem that lets you give the “character” keyword to more knights and gain a few more “warlords” for your army – with their own traits. I talked about the better charging one, but you get some cool ones like 4+ inv save, extra attacks, and other neat options. Overall it gives a ton of flavor and abilities to your already close combat monsters. All the households get Warlord traits specific to them, but I think there are kinda eh when compared to the other ones.
I like most of the stratagems as they really give you a lot of flavor and options for your knights. There is the one that gives you a +1 to your Ion shield save to a max of 3+. That seems pretty good and depending on how FW rules some things could see play. There is a cheeky one that lets your knight get a chance to stand back up after getting killed if it didn’t explode. There is an attack again Stratagem so I get the feeling with a few Gallants running around you could see some significant damage done to your squishy units.
My favorite random Stratagem is called Death Grip. If you knight has the big fist and you are within an inch of a single model unit you can spend one command point to reach out and try to grab that model. If you hit with an attack, you get to pick them up and cause d3 Mortal wounds. Then you and your opponent roll a strength check (d6+str) and if the roll equals or beats the knight’s roll – the model breaks out. If they don’t break out – you do another d3 mortal wounds. I imagine instead of squeezing the model it instead is smashing the model against its crotch like the robot from the Robot Chicken show.
Finally, on the good side of things, the Relics are pretty dang neat. You got things from giving the knight a 2+ armor save, a ton of good weapons (one fist that has no minus to hit and a flat eight damage), and other neat things. The best Plasma Gun for the other big knight is in here with Cawl’s blessing. Overall it is a ton of neat stuff and really glad we have a Stratagem that lets us take some even if we are not the warlord.
There is a ton of good in this codex, and I think it is a really neat update.
The Enh
I am not a fan of the other big knight. It feels like it just doesn’t do enough to justify its weapon load out. The Plasma gun feels weak as its default setting is one wound – which is ok but, we all know the issue at hand is having a chance to cause a bunch more. Mixed in with a flat heavy 2d6 for its shots and you just have an underwhelming gun. If you overcharge you even just take Mortal wounds which is pretty annoying. The Volcano lance seems good, but that flat heavy d6 is just brutal when you roll that 1 and miss anyway.
The Knight Preceptor seems ok at first. Sure if you are running a heavy Armiger army he is a must have as he gives out a reroll 1 to hit on all House Armigers near him. I am just still not convinced on those guys being super good even with the changes done to them. The Knight has a weird gun that is ok but again falls into that niche of what does it need to do that you can either complete with charging robots or other weapons.
I want to like the Armiger, but it feels like you really need the Knight Preceptor to make them work well, so it becomes a bit of an issue. I think the Autocannon one is pretty good, but it will depend on what you need to deal with as you play more. I can see them being a real pain in the butt for Dark Eldar as they can easily out range them. I only put it in the Enh section as it could be good – but probably not worth initially investing in.
The other Enh thing is it looks like the Armiger kit is just the Helverin bits and not the initial Warglaive bits. This means you have to get the other kit. This is kind of annoying as they could have easily added it all into one complete kit just to make things easier. It is the same with the big Knights as you have two separate boxes for each Knight. Some kind of combo would have just been better and given you a chance to do some magnetization.
The Freeblade rules seem neat, but I wish they were more “powerful.” As is they look like they could be fun for Knight Jousting and other narrative type games. It is the same with the new Character knight. It just again feels like its more for fun and not for something serious for a tournament.
That’s my quick review of the new Knight Codex. I am pretty stoked to take my big monsters out and see how they work. I think overall it is going to be a Gate Keeper style army; they have some especially rough matchups, but then run into armies that just can’t deal with all these giant fast-moving jerks. I plan on buying this codex and probably one of the bigger Knights. I am less likely to get some Armigers – but the Auto Cannon ones will probably fine a place in my army at some point. I just wish the book had Renegade rules that match up with this but oh well. Counts as might be the only way to go for my Dark Mechnicus ideas.
~ What do you think of the new codex and models?
