Goatboy’s 40K: The Best Chaos Knights
Goatboy here and you’d think I’d be done talking about Chaos Knights – well we got some new ones with the new Forge World update so I’ve decided to list the new best 3 Naughty Knights.
One will be obvious, and I think the other two come from the new Forgeworld release.
Now, I know a lot of people think the FW release nerfed the Knights a bit – but I think two of them are pretty dang good. It all comes from having a decent cost mixed with a powerful gun. Throw in the power of the Infernal Household, and I feel you have the beginnings of a very powerful all Knights army for the upcoming ITC season. I will throw that list out at the end after I pontificate on the top 3 Chaos Knights.
I know I left my Gatling cannons around here somewhere?
Chaos Knight #1 – Despoiler with Double Gatling Cannons and Ironstorm Missile Pod – 501 Points
Iconoclast Household with a Vow of your choice depending on what you are fighting plus anti Modifiers Relic as it just does so much for you versus Plague Bearers, Alpha Legion, and flyers. If not that Relic you could look at the Anti Inv Save relic, as well as this guy, can run gangbusters up the field and charge in – especially with that Vow that gives you more attacks after your bullets kill some pesky models. I put this guy at #1.
This guy will show up in almost every knight that runs a Chaos Knight army. It is very good and an important fixture to any all Knight Chaos army – or only a Chaos army that wants to throw in one Chaos Knight. Heck, even an Infernal one isn’t too bad as you get a chance to throw out some Strength 7, 3 damage no-nonsense bullets of evil.
Chaos Knight #2 – Castigator – 430 points
Infernal household seems to be the ambition to take as he has one powerful gun to boost. It’s the fact that it has 16 shots, strength 6, and that nice flat 2 damage. Throw on the Infernal power-up, and you got Strength 7 with a flat 3 damage. That is just nuts on a 430 point model with extra wounds on top of it as well. This makes throwing that chance at 3 wounds on an Infernal update as an ok bit of damage to take. It also has a decent sword attack that can kill stronger things with more attacks. Iconoclast isn’t to bad because it pushes 10 to 15 attacks, but I feel Infernal is the way to go.
I am wondering if they looked to balancing the FW Knights like this guy – that the others would be better. I think their weapons are a bit overcosted and that is causing a lot of the issues with them. If you drop them down towards the Castigator point total and you start to see these guys as a powerful addition.
He’s evil on the inside…
Chaos Knight #3 – War Dog Moirax with 2 Lightning Coils – 155pts
This was my favorite weapon upgrade from the release, and while it is powerful, I don’t think it is bonkers. The rules for Lightning Coils is that it gets 6 Heavy shots at Strength 6, AP -2, 1 Damage at 36″ with the added rule of any unmodified roll of a 6 generates 2 hits. The unmodified roll rule is impressive because it gives this model a crazy Ork-like ability and lets the Chaos Knight player have another horde clearing option. Throw Infernal on this model and all of a sudden you get a chance to throw out some Strength 7, 2 Damage shots that auto-hit on a 6. There is a lot of chatter on how Knights can be a threat to flyers – but if they don’t go first that power Relic carrying Knight will get shot to pieces. These guys are so cheap, fill out extra portions in another Super Heavy Detachment and could even let you make a Despoiler worth it to field.
I have been talking about this model with my buddies as I try to think of conversions to create some kind of crazy Chaos versions (Necron Weapons, dark Mechanicus upgrades, etc.) or how I should update the models themselves to feel more chaotic. These models will show up, and I think they are the backbone to any new full Chaos Knights army that might show up.
Putting It All Together
Alright, let’s put it all together and spit out a list to see how many robots we can fit in. Will go all Infernal and won’t list any Relics or Warlord traits as the power the Chaos Knights is it can change/morph in-between each game.
Super Heavy Detachment / +5CP
Infernal Household Ambition
-LoW-
Chaos Knight Despoiler – Avenger Gatling Cannon/Heavy Flamer X 2, Heavy Stubber – 485pts
Chaos Knight Despoiler – Thermal Cannon X 2, Heavy Stubber – 397pts
Chaos Knight Despoiler – Thunderstrike Gauntlet, Reaper Chainsword, Heavy Stubber – 372pts
Super Heavy Detachment / +3CP
Infernal Household Ambition
-LoW-
Chaos Knight Castigator – 430pts
War Dog Moirax – Lightning Coils X 2 – 155pts
War Dog Moirax – Lightning Coils X 2 – 155pts
Pts Total – 1994 | CP: 11
Tactics
The Close Combat Despoiler is there to rush towards, the Castigator follows behind while the Thermal Cannon Knight can get boosted with Relics to kill things. You could go with a Desecrator instead of the Castigator – but that model can push out so much damage as needed that it becomes more powerful to have that long-legged crazy Knight.
~What do you think? Is the new Lightning Coil Armigers just crazy good for 40k and the Knight Armies? Causing auto hits is a powerful mechanic as it helps ignore all those pesky modifiers. Plus on Overwatch, it just seems crazy good.
