Goatboy’s Warhammer 40K Hot Mess: Chaos Knight War Dog Stalker
Goatboy here with another 40K hot mess. The War Dog Stalker is the character villain… that wasn’t. Let’s get to work.
The War Dog Stalker is a weird kit in this Chaos Knight mess that get a Character keyword and represents a “War Dog” leader – without really having any leadership skills! He is a leader in keyword only and it feels like a miss for the army as a whole. Of course you could just say make the bigger Knights better – but that is a dance that gets too close to being too good if messed with too much in one direction. The Stalker is a weird option as it gains a character keyword and thus can lead the army. The old ways of last Edition would let you make any War Dog a character to help satisfy those monsters with 12+ War Dogs to use in an army. It just feels like an odd choice, as while it isn’t a bad model, it just doesn’t feel special at all. Let’s make it cooler.
Give The War Dog Stalker a Better Ability
With a name like Stalker let’s make it a hunter-style model. I think the easiest thing to add to this would be to let it either Infiltrate or do some kind of Scout move. This would be a pretty simple update and help create a different vibe for this model. Plus it would give the Chaos Knight army some unique options that are not just the amazing shooting profile of the Brigade or the sheer speed of a Karnivore Koolaid man’in through a wall.
Make the War Dog Stalker’s Guns Better
Since this model is a Stalker why not let the Stalkers pick an enemy model at the beginning of the game and then gain some kind of benefit. Either they need a +1 to hit, +1 to wound, or just some kind of simple reroll effect when targeting the one model. They cannot shift their target once declared, and all Stalkers target the same model – but it would let them feel like someone trying to watch the enemy through the windows in a broken wall.
Give the War Dog Stalker a Unique Character Power
Let’s say you make one the Warlord, they all of a sudden gain something neat. It could be as simple as a reroll 1’s to wound for all Wardogs within 6” or at least something that feels like the Lieutenant’s ability or even just something unique for Chaos Knights. It would only affect War Dogs, as there is no way one of these angry puppies should affect any of the bigger Knight buddies.
I really hope we get a Chaos Knight and Imperial Knight codex soon. It feels like both armies need some help in either more unique army rules or just better sets of interactions within their armies. They are a nice set of options for new players to play with a fun set of models to build and paint. I love how Chaos Knights have a lot of flavor in the fluff. I just wish that translated onto the tabletop a bit more through rules.
For the Warmaster!
