Goatboy’s Grimdark Armylist – Imperial Knights Cerastus Brothers
Goatboy here with the new normal for Imperial Knights – post Balance Dataslate. Meet the Cerastus brothers!
The Imperial Knights walked away with a win during this Balance Dataslate update with a core change to their movement rules. This update has really sparked a powerful shift in their gameplay and while it isn’t perfect – it does help them get around the table, be a pain in the butt, and let them wreck things in the end.
Thankfully the Pivot ruling thing is mostly solved from the Knight chassis’ as a pivot is a net loss of movement for them. The overall goal of the ruling for it was to make things move around the table more easily which is good. The other big shift is, of course, how those big Imperial Knights can move over terrain with only the threat of a failed Battleshock keeping them at bay. This is huge, as a lot of tournaments are seeing a large amount of terrain and being able to “walk” over it lets the big Knight armies work.
This leads into why Imperial Knights got better: Their big Knights help activate their smaller Knights and are overall in a better place than their Chaos Knight counterparts. Just being able to shift, move, and be a constant threat is one way an army works, and this is how big ole scary Knights are going to show up a lot more on the tabletop.
Meet the New Normal for Imperial Knights
The following list won the Salzburg Cup in Austria this past week – piloted by William Fuhrimann. It represents a common style list utilizing some Armigers, two big Cerastus chassis knights, and finally Canis Rex to punch people in the face. This three-knight setup seems perfect for anyone looking to build out a list. I just hope the Cerastus Chassis stays in the game when their actual book comes out (Pretty please, GW keep these plastic monsters in 40K).
Imperial Knights
Noble Lance
Strike Force (2000 Points)
CHARACTERS
Canis Rex (435 Points)
• 1x Chainbreaker las-impulsor
1x Chainbreaker multi-laser
1x Freedom’s Hand
Cerastus Knight Atrapos (450 Points)
• Warlord
• 1x Atrapos lascutter
1x Graviton singularity cannon
• Enhancements: Mysterious Guardian
Cerastus Knight Lancer (430 Points)
• 1x Cerastus shock lance
BATTLELINE
Armiger Warglaive (150 Points)
• 1x Questoris heavy stubber
1x Reaper chain-cleaver
1x Thermal spear
Armiger Warglaive (150 Points)
• 1x Questoris heavy stubber
1x Reaper chain-cleaver
1x Thermal spear
Armiger Warglaive (150 Points)
• 1x Questoris heavy stubber
1x Reaper chain-cleaver
1x Thermal spear
Armiger Warglaive (150 Points)
• 1x Questoris heavy stubber
1x Reaper chain-cleaver
1x Thermal spear
ALLIED UNITS
Eversor Assassin (75 Points)
• 1x Executioner pistol
1x Power sword and neuro gauntlet
2000pts
Cerastus Brothers Tactics
The Cerastus Atrapos is an interesting one as it was always a weird model. It was one of the kits I always like as it felt creepy, looks cool, and the weapon was a giant mean super laser. Its rule also lets it be a sheer terror to any Monster or Vehicle. It also has a rather nifty Melee profile threat in a Sustained Hit option that is decently strong enough. The Cerastus Lancer is an obvious choice too as it can give out Advance and Charge to all those Armigers which allows them to get around terrain a bit better and punch above their weight as needed.
The real sauce in all this is the Mysterious Guardian upgrade that allows a Knight to disappear and show up somewhere else once a game. That can be a powerful option too, as your opponent’s flank can all of a sudden have a giant Jerk pop in, threatening all your models quickly. I just like how all three bigs are very damaging in whatever phase they want to be, either with free Tank shocks for the Lancer, a cheap Strat for Canis Rex, and of course the Atrapos just wrecking a vehicle.
The final neat little piece is the Eversor Assassin that can scout up, do an action, and just be a pain to remove. He is so fast that lets him show up where needed and on top he has Lone Operative to be an issue to remove. While it isn’t the Callidus’s up and down movement it does let you do things as needed based on the cards you draw during the event.
Congrats to William for kicking but with some big toys on the tabletop.
