Warhammer 40K: Knights As Allies Explored
Games Workshop talks about adding Knights to your armies without breaking the Army Rules.
Knights are coming with a new codex and today GW is going into more detail on how to add them as allies. Love them or hate them they are a force to be reckoned with. And if you can’t think of a way to take them out you might as well bring one with your army. Fight fire with fire with a Freeblade of your own!
“[Many] abilities, such as the Space Marines’ Combat Doctrines and Adeptus Mechanicus’ Canticles of the Omnissiah, are only active when your entire force is picked from the same faction. However, AGENTS OF THE IMPERIUM or AGENTS OF CHAOS can often sidestep this restriction, so your Knight can join the fun.”
These additional rules are designed to allow players to add these warmachines to their armies without negating all the unique rules. It’s a practice GW has used before. But is it a good idea?
Knights As Allies
The way this system is setup there’s really no major downside to bringing a Knight with your army — other than the points cost. The “core” of your army will function the same. All your special rules will still apply and you’re free to use those units and abilities as normal. The only catch is none of those rules apply to the Allied Knight. Furthermore, the Freeblade/Dreadblade will also miss out on their own special “army” rules.
It is technically a downside. You’re paying the points for the sheer amount of firepower the Knights can provide. But you’re also missing out on all the extras. Is that trade-off worth it for your list? That’s really going to depend on your list and how you want to play the army! Knights do have a way of plugging up some holes or shoring up the gaps in your list.
GW mentioned a few options. They call them: The Big Hitter, The Psychic Storm, and the Pack of Dogs. The Big Hitter, as the name implies, is really just as it sounds. It’s the massive Lord of War that brings all the booms with it’s ranged weapons. Or you could run it up close with that scary 6 damage chainsword!
The Psychic Storm is also an option now. If you’re a little light on the Warp in your army you can add in a Knight that also happens to be a Psyker these days. The Knight Abominant also opens up so really funky options for chaos in that regard.
My personal preference is the Pack of Dogs idea. This is simply bringing an Armiger or two (or three) in your lists. Why? Well Armigers and their Chaos counterpart War Dogs get Objective Secured in all-Knight Detachments. Let that sink in for a moment. Combined with their durability and firepower they are nice little package to keep in your back pocket! They put out enough damage to make them a real threat and have the battlefield footprint of a Dreadnought (or slightly larger).
Those super-charged auto cannons are no joke!
Are you considering bringing a Knight in your non-Knight army? How do you like to run them?
