Warhammer 40K: Detachment Breakdown – Mastering the Chaos Knights “Iconoclast Fiefdom”
Goatboy here to breakdown the 40K Advent Calendar Detachment – the Chaos Knights ‘Iconoclast Fiefdom’ with tips, tricks, and a sample army!
With this 2024 Advent Calendar of fun stuff for Warhammer 40K coming out, it’s time to review the detachments as they come out. We’ll do as usual a Good, Bad, and Ugly little break down for each one then a look at the type of list I would play for this army. I will begin with one of the detachments and as the weeks go on break down a few in batches as they come out. I am very excited to see some new rules and maybe some new ways to play an army and create something new and unique. Right now the game is sorta of locking into “best” of style armies and while we do have some innovation from time to time it feels like the same tricks are what is going to carry “best of” armies to the top.
‘Iconoclast Fiefdom’ – The Good
The Iconoclast Fiefdom is an interesting detachment for Chaos Knights as it finally gives you some CSM allies for your giant big bad voodoo daddies. You can select up to 500 points of Damned units for the army – which usually leaves you with either a nice Accursed Squad and friends or a ton of Cultists. I expect a wave of Cultists will be key to this but will see as others test the army out.
There two new rules for the Detachment – Dread Tyrants (Aura) and Dark Sacrifice which is an activated ability similar to the CSM Dark Pacts but with a nice Chaos Knights shift to it. Dread Tyrants allows your Damned units who are within 9” of a Titanic Chaos Knight to reroll hits rolls of 1 and wound rolls of 1. That is pretty decent when you think about how many dice you can throw with all those cultists. The Dark Sacrifice is an activated ability that has a Chaos Knight select a Damned unit within 6” and have it roll a Leadership check. If it passes d3 models are sacrificed and if it fails d3+3 models are removed. Once that is done the Chaos Knights can select to either have Sustained Hits 1 or Lethal Hits. Both of these are pretty interesting and could see some use especially with waves of cultists getting all the objectives sticky.
There are three very interesting Enhancements that might see some use if this Detachment gains some legs. One is the Profane Altar that lets the bearer get both Dark Sacrifice powers but the Damned unit takes maximum models removed. There is Pave the Way which lets you pick 3 Damned units and give them a 6” scout ability. Diabolical Resilience is the most expensive one and it grants the bearer a 6+ Feel No Pain as well as ignore all move characteristic modifiers.
The stratagems are interesting in that they are designed in ways to benefit from the nature of having a ton of Damned units to utilize. There is a 2CP regrow stratagem for your non Accursed Cultist Damned that seems pretty good. There is one that can mark the enemy character that kills one of your knights with that lets your damned gain Lethal Hits versus it. You get a wound regrow option for Chaos Knights if they kill stuff in Close Combat called Soul Hunger. The best one and probably one of the reasons to look at this Detachment is an Advance and Charge option called Unrestrained Rage which seems pretty useful for the army. Heck there is even one that lets you shoot at the enemy even if they are in engagement range of your Damned units. We even get some movement tricks for the Damned options where they can “rush” in front of a Knight if needed.
‘Iconoclast Fiefdom’ – The Bad
The bad in all of this is the question are the Cultists going to do enough to take away 500 points? We also have the whole issue of the Chaos Knights main set of rules not being that good with trying to utilize Battle Shock options. I am hoping we see some major shifts whenever their book comes out to help make this detachment even more interesting.
‘Iconoclast Fiefdom’ – The Ugly
There should have been something to help the Abominant be better. I also wish we had something to help some of the AP of some of their weapons as they still don’t feel right. The Abominant for sure but some of their other options could use some tweaks. I also wonder if they could have had something where they don’t care about the Cultsits at all and can “end” on top of them by pushing them around them when moving.
Sample Detachment Armylist – Iconoclast Fiefdom
Chaos Knights
Iconoclast Fiefdom
Strike Force
CHARACTERS
Chaos Cerastus Knight Lancer (455 Points)
• Warlord
• 1x Cerastus shock lance
• Diabolical Resilience
Knight Despoiler (415 Points)
• 1x Despoiler gatling cannon
• 1x Despoiler gatling cannon
• 1x Diabolus heavy stubber
• 1x Havoc missile pod
• 1x Heavy darkflamer
• 1x Heavy darkflamer
• 1x Titanic feet
• Profane Altar
BATTLELINE
War Dog Brigand (165 Points)
• 1x Armoured feet
• 1x Avenger chaincannon
• 1x Daemonbreath spear
• 1x Diabolus heavy stubber
War Dog Brigand (165 Points)
• 1x Armoured feet
• 1x Avenger chaincannon
• 1x Daemonbreath spear
• 1x Diabolus heavy stubber
War Dog Karnivore (140 Points)
• 1x Diabolus heavy stubber
• 1x Reaper chaintalon
• 1x Slaughterclaw
War Dog Karnivore (140 Points)
• 1x Diabolus heavy stubber
• 1x Reaper chaintalon
• 1x Slaughterclaw
ALLIES
Chaos Cultists X 20 (100pts)
Chaos Cultists X 20 (100pts)
Chaos Cultists X 20 (100pts)
Chaos Cultists X 20 (100pts)
Cultist Firebrand (45pts)
Cultist Firebrand (45pts)
‘Iconoclast Fiefdom’ Tactics
The idea here is to utilize the Cultists to gum the floor a bit, sticky some objectives, and help out the two big knights. You will want to combo out your Despoiler to let it shoot 36 Lethal/Sustained shots as it poor some murder out for the enemy. The Wardogs are a bit random and I wonder if pulling in a Stalker and getting some scouting action for the Cultists might be best but at the very least this is something interesting to use. The Lancer is just very good at moving there, getting an Advance roll, and just crashing in like a wrecking ball.
Download the Detachment Here (PDF)
