40K: Chaos Knights are Here – It’s Payback Time Imperials
So a thing happened… Chaos Knights got a codex and what I really like about them is people who play Imperial Knights are going to finally get a taste of their own medicine… heh!
The newest codex for 40K is here and the early Conventional Wisdom is still an infant.
First Draft Opinions
I’ve listened to several reviews and opinions are all over the place. A common sentiment is the Iconoclast Household is inferior to the Infernal. There’s a lot of mixed feelings regarding the Dreadblade. Only time will tell what are the best combos.
Choose a side!
Personally I’m not that excited with more Knights in the game, but I am happy for Chaos players. I can’t bring myself to play Knights since I’ve discussed ad nauseum how I believe Knights are damaging the game. I did listen to a recent voxcast with Jes Godwin – and he is totally in love with Knights. Seeing as Jes is a GW Studio long-timer, I think the writing is on the proverbial wall for big models. It wouldn’t surprise me if we see ever more Lords of War, that in previous editions have been restricted to large games of Apocalypse.
Chaos Knights Bringing Balance?
If you zoom in, you can see a little pee.
Watch Out Imperials
So let’s look at how Chaos Knights can bring some much needed external balance to Eighth Edition. First and as mentioned above Imperial Knights have to deal with an equivalent that has all the necessary tools to smash them on the tabletop. There are two Chaos Knight methods to build a Gallant equivalent and they can trash the Imperials hard… always hit first, ignore enemy model’s invulnerable save (really bad news for Forge World Knights), boost toughness to T9, ignore wounds on 2s and 3s, etc. This is quite a predicament for Imperial Knight players as their Gallants are nigh useless now. Chaos Knights also have the ability to shoot while completely ignoring any negative modifiers to hit – so sorry those gigantic Plaguebearer screens and Eldar flyer spam just got punched hard right in the naughty bits… haha! These “easy-mode” lists got what they deserve at long last. So no, it’s not all bad depending on what you like to play.
Brother, it’s great to be back!
Smash Brothers Return?
I think Chaos Knights could make the Daemon Primarchs viable again as well using the multi threat approach – Smash Brothers squared if you understand what I mean. Magnus in particular could synergize quite well with Chaos Knights bringing the psychic domination to the dark side… Mortarion not such much as he is mostly just very punchy and not really needed as such.
~So how do you feel about the new Chaos Knights and how do you think they will shake up the meta?
