Yoooooo!!! Reecius here to talk about one of the current hot topics: Knights First Impressions!
So first things first, I have to plug our business. We still have our Pre-Order Special going on until Friday over at Frontline Gaming. So follow the link to see how you can get new goodies and save some money!
OK, shameless plug aside, let’s discuss the new, awesome models GW has given us and how they interact in the game based off what we know, now. shall we?
The rules in White Dwarf were lacking in depth (like, how do we fit these things into the FoC, etc.) but it seems that those answers will be coming soon. For the time being we will work with the assumption that these boys can be their own force or ally to any army. I can’t wait to see some of the awesome Tau, Ork and Chaos conversions and scratch builds you know we will be seeing soon!
So, besides being a beautiful model, what does the Knight bring to the table top? According to the GW FB page, these are NOT a Lord of War, and as such, GW really wants us to use these in “normal” games of 40K. It is a Super Heavy Walker, AV13/12/12, 6 Hull Points and a 4++ that it can put up in one of its armor facings at the beginning of the enemy shooting phase. This shield only works vs. shooting.
It’s packing either a Rapid Fire Battle Cannon (Large Blast, Str8, AP3) or a large blast, strength 9 Melta Cannon. Eh, not bad firepower. It pales in comparison to some of the stuff out there as, pshh, it doesn’t even ignore cover! That’s sooo 5th edition.
But jokes aside, these weapons are powerful but at a very hefty price point falling a bit shy of 400pts, that really isn’t much to speak of in the shooting department. Oh, and some stubbers but who cares? Actually, that does allow him to shoot two targets, which allows for assaulting something other than what you shot with the boom stick, which is pretty awesome, actually! -ed However, due to the relatively high resilience of the model to shooting attacks, it is a pretty safe bet that this big lug will be shooting for most of the game unless he draws a boatload of enemy attention.
What really grabs people’s eye is the D melee weapon. The dreaded D! D weapons, for those unfamiliar, are the last word in 40K. Baring Vortex weapons, nothing is more powerful. If a D weapon hits a unit, pretty much assume you are taking said unit off of the board. They ignore all saves, including invulnerable saves.
Now I openly advocate against D weapons in normal 40K as we see them on units like a Revenant that will erase multiple units a turn while dancing around you and making you rage quit 40K. However, on a unit like the Knight, they seem to me at this point to be pretty OK. Why? The Knight only has 3 base attacks at WS4, I4. That really isn’t that impressive. Yes, it will obliterate any tank it touches but largely, that is true of any MC that gets its mits on a vehicle, too. It will chew up an infantry unit over time but again, so will any MC who will also often have more attacks, too.
There isn’t that much of a difference in actual effect for most units. The real difference is that if you can get this guy into a one-on-one fight with a nasty character or MC and he survives (as most any nasty assault beastie will swing first) he will most likely destroy them in a single blow due to D weaponry. With 3-4 attacks (depending on if he assaulted) and hopefully rerolls of some sort from say, prescience, he will reliably do some work, even if hitting on 5’s due to his opponent having WS9 or higher. However if you find yourself facing more than one MC, he will often get destroyed before swinging.
What he won’t be though, is a Deathstar killer. Why do I say that? While yes, he does break through the hated 2++ reroll save, the units that carry that around don’t care much. Many of them are super fast (Ovessastar, Seercouncil, Screamerstar) and can avoid big guy, or, will just kill him in combat. The Seercouncil for example, swings first and with massed Armorbane weapons, possibly juiced up with strength buffs, he won’t survive to swing in most cases. The Screamerstar will lose a few Screamers and then Lamprey Bight him to death. Ovessastar just shoots him to death before he gets close (unless the Knight is very lucky on saves).
Even if he does make combat and survives, many of the Deathstars don’t care if they lose a few models to his attacks. Ovessastar is the only unit that really fears it in melee, honestly and to be fair, if he gets there, they will get waxed, hard.
However, it’s not all bad by any means. Being a Super Heavy, this bad boy is SO much more resilient than a normal vehicle. He is also fast, and has the sweet River Dance stomp attacks to clear infantry! I insist that when you perform a Stomp attack, you actually perform a River Dance to forge a seriously hard narrative.
In all, at this early stage and before having actually played the model, I am excited for how big and cool looking it is and think it will bring a lot of fun to table tops. I think this model is also fine to use in tournaments from what we can see on paper so far. I don’t think at it’s hefty price tag and relatively weak punch that it will be a top tournament choice, but I could be wrong. We definitely look forward to play testing it this weekend!
My first impressions of this big guy is that it is a gorgeous model, exciting for what it means for the future kits we can expect as GW continues to push the envelope with model design, while being a pretty balanced model in terms of rules. So far I see this as probably not a tournament winner, but perhaps packing some punch when taken en masse, they will be pretty nasty. I can see a solo Knight adding a lot to many lists though, that may lack a versatile unit like this. The question though as always is, will he be worth the points when compared to the units you COULD take in his place?
What do you all think about the Knight so far?
Edit number 2, forgot to mention they explode in a big, destructive way when killed. That can be used as a weapon or it can be really bad for the controlling player depending on where and when this occurs. Super Heavies explode in spectacular fashion and as such, can really cause havoc.
I’m excited to see how an army of these things fares. I can’t imagine they will do too well, but you have to be equipped to deal with them to stand a chance. Also, did anyone else notice all the weapons are on one sprue? It seems incredibly easy for GW to just produce another weapon sprue for more variants. I imagine that codex will have more then just the two variants in it.
Rumour is Forgeworld are announcing upgrade / accessory kits at the weekend.
I have heard that same rumor.
That will be fun to see!
Nice article. However, you do not mention one very big advantage it has, according to rumors: it scores and can plug into almost any army, in pretty much any quantity. And that is huge (and the reason why it is a problem) in my opinion.
I did mention that you could take lots of them for any army, but not the scoring bit as that is not confirmed yet. But, that is a good point.
nicely written. Excited to see the model.. figure it to be a unit mostly included for fluff/badassery but prob not to be competitive.
Thanks! And yeah, we’ll see. I think it is good, but uber pricey so it may not be worthwhile. Play testing will tell.
One important thing is that they are scoring…
Yes, if they are your primary detachment, or so the rumors go. We’ll see!
I played a couple of games to test them, using toys as imperial knights, this week. I fielded 3 of them with some allied antiair oriented tau. They are pretty tougher than they seem. One was vs necrons and the other vs a seerstar. In both games I lost 2 of them, but in exchange I almost obliterated my enemies.
My first thoughts are that they are not unbreakable, but really, really durable thanks to the invincible behemoth rule, and enought fast to engage combat in turn 2-3. Their shooting is pretty decent for their cost, but once reached CC they’re near unstoppable. They have some antiair issues, but if you can solve it with allies that’s not a big problem. If it’s true that they’re allways scoring units and that they can ally anyone, I think they will be the new top dogs (or they just will be banned from competition games).
Also, please care about the stubbers, because they have one good use: they are the main reason because they can shoot one unit with their real weapon and declare and assault to another target
Excellent point on the heavy stubbers! I didn’t think of that.
And yeah, en masse they may overwhelm folks.
Plus you can hope for 6’s to down enemy FMC’s!
Yeah, and then blast them.
Mainly I see value so far in parking it on an Obj and forcing the opponent to move him off… Ie Relic. 12″ move first turn and if he’s scoring would he be allowed to pick up the relic and hold it all game?
Supposedly he is scoring if taken as your primary detachment. If so, then yes, which is crazy, lol!
While I don’t see it being an end-all unit or deathstar killer, it does add a much needed element to many lists.. For instance, the Paladin variant will allow a lot of armies to deal with grav bike blobs and command squads (being able to snipe out the apothecary with AP3 barrage!?) that don’t have access to heavy artillery or the hell turkey.
Yeah, I agree, I see him being a great utility in a lot of armies that lack something like this.
Great that’s just what the meta needs, a counter to the dreaded SM bike deathstar that has been ruining peoples fun(that’s sarcasm btw, lol).
But I don’t believe knights have any barrage weapons anyway.
I agree with this. I am impressed by how balanced they seem on paper. Like all vehicles, he’ll be a bit of a pain for my nids, but Crones will certainly help out a lot.
I think Crones will be his bain. Vector Strike (if possible, both models are so big you would have to be really close), or just fly around him, shoot him with Tentaclids. He hopes to ground them with his stubber then wax them in assault. It would be interesting.
Sadly I see Crones as our only effective way to handle them. Our MCs are low initiative or without assault grenades (what knight won’t be standing on an objective in terrain vs Nids?) and risk the knight blowing some D in their face if the knight does ho kaboom.
Now if they would just shave 150-ish pts off the hierodule.
Yeah, the Nid GCs are BRUTAL! Holy crap, some of those guys are just savage.
I can’t wait to try one for my CSM force…I think it should work well in combination with a fast rushing army…Can’t wait to try it.
Yeah, CSM will really benefit form the big guy!
Knights are GW’s first step towards making D weapons just another thing. It’s like how there were no tools to deal with flyer heavy armies at the beginning of 6th so they dominated. Eventually, the releases caught up to the rules. Pretty soon, there will be enough tools out there that even Revenant Titans won’t be a big deal.
I don’t know that I agree with this. They didn’t deal with flyer heavy armies by introducing more flyer heavy armies. What really punched flyer heavy armies (Necron air mainly) was Taus ability to field large amounts of interceptor and skyfire. The flyer heavy bit did one thing very well and as soon as something that could counter it comes along, it left the top spot. I don’t believe that adding more big super units that can remove everything else from the board will do anything to discourage the use of big super units that can remove everything else from the board.
Honestly it’s not super units that are most cost effective at killing super units. Take the Warhound for example, getting it stuck in with some cheap infantry and it’s going to be out of the game for a while, until you get something bigger over there to punch it. Similarly with the Revenant, for that price you can get 9 night scythes, which will pretty much annihilate it in a single turn, or even 7 Vendettas for the same price will kill it in 1-2 turns. The goal shouldn’t even be to kill a Revenant in a single turn, losing 900 points of your army shouldn’t really happen that quickly, but killing it in general is certainly going to help you win with those 3 VP’s. Once the meta changes and people start taking things that can handle super heavies, the impact of Destroyer weapons is going to be greatly diminished.
Yeah, but that is the old argument of list tailoring, which is a bit of a strawman. You need to be able to face these things with a TAC list for them to really be considered balanced.
I agree ab titans, in order to REALISTICALLY deal with a Revenant, u have to build a list to beat it. Because if you build a TAC list you probably hav2-3, MAYBE 4 ynits with a viable chance to hurt heavy armor like that. And lets be honest, the player controlling a rev is gonna target thise units 1st.
Exactly.
The problem is that many people don’t bring TAC armies because it’s more effective to bring an one-dimensional list that does great as long as it doesn’t meet it’s counter.
I think that once the powerful extreme lists have their counters available, they’ll become less popular due to not being as reliable to win, that’s when balanced lists will finally come back.
Here’s to hoping!
I think at this point I’d like to see anything but a 2++ star win, haha.
Balanced lists will come back when there are several counters to every tailored list. People will also make lists that may not be super balanced, possibly with what are considered weaker units alone, but decent in saturation (for example Telepathy/divination CSM;daemons vs. horde armies). List tailoring is somewhat a concession that your army is incapable or inferior to others, but then again that is the only option some armies have.
To bigpig:
Well, say you legalize Knights as a standalone army and let people bring five of these to the table. That army is going to beat the tar out of that Revenant standing behind 9 void shields because a few knights are going to catch it in assault and crush it.
It should also bust up death stars pretty good with all the destroyer attacks in assault. One won’t, but several will.
Give it time and the Tau to this flyerwing will emerge.
I hate to break it to you, but a Revenant would have it’s saucy way with those knights. It moves 36″ a turn, getting a knight into it wont be an easy task.
They move 12″. Try avoiding five. I dares ya!
It’ll be avoiding 5, then it’ll be avoiding 4, then 3…
The Rev kills two of these a turn, easily, and is faster.
Turns out I was rusty on my Revenant rules. I thought they only had 2 D blasts, but they have 4! I am wrong!
Yeah, its the two shots per gun that really makes this thing nuts, with guide, it is almost a certainty that it kills what it shoots.
The difference is that people currently have the tools to deal with super heavies, they just choose to not take them because the meta puts more emphasis on higher volume of S6-7 shots to handle medium-light armour instead.
Reece,
So I wanted to call out that against any non Mc or walker with a base in it of 8 or less this guy will usually swing simo. Most people have neglected to mention that he has the strike down special rule.
Strike down is on the knight not his weapons so you could theoretical shoot, force a save then charge. This however only works on models that actually made a save or took a wound in the case of eldar etc it might only effect a single model.
Actually the rules say it has to come from an “attack” with that rule, not a weapon, so unfortunately it’s battle cannon doesn’t knock people on it’s butt.
I have to agree with Adam on this one, I think that is reaching a bit to say Strikedown applies to the model’s weapons. I see nothing in the rules that justifies that assertion, it appears to me to be applied to his Hammer of Wrath attacks, but we will see.
I disagree many rule sources differentiate between close combat and shooting atracks. When something effects just cc it say the units close combat attacks have … When it’s shooting it says their shooting attacks. Both are attacks, one is an attack with the cc sub type, the other is attack with the ranged or shooting sub type. Both are still attacks. The special rule says attacks, not cc or ranged.
For example smash says cc, soul blaze says attacks. The difference is whether the model or the weapon has it In this case the model has strike down, so all attacks cc or ranged have it, much like jow interceptor or sniper is conferred to models weapons if the model has it.
It’s not a Revenant, ergo it is poop.
It has weaknesses, ergo it is double poop.
huh?
His name is Fister, and he has a phallic symbol for his avatar. Nuff said.
The Knights are the new “wraithknights”. It will be ridiculed for its high price tag but will surprise many on how well it controls the board and deter enemy assault units. Now I don’t see these guys being spammed, but I believe a lot of TAC armies, especially shooty MSU, to benefit with even one of these guys.
Time to break out my Crowe-Purifiers. 😉
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. They will function exactly like a WK, with some advantages and some weaknesses in comparison.
BTW, super-heavies don’t necessarily have to assault at a unit that it shoots at. It can assault any unit (that is assaultable), including completely different units than the ones that it shoots at.
Excellent point!
Yep, those stubbers are solely for pissing off flyrants and crones, haha.
Should I encounter one, I will insist that the target for EVERY weapon on a ‘knight be declared before it rolls any dice; all shooting attacks made by the same model are simultaneous, after all, right? Otherwise…”Oh, I totally just knocked your Daemon Prince out of the sky and now I’m going to shoot him with my big, hurty cannon…”.
Ah yeah, fair point.
It seems to me that this is signally the eventual end to the current death stars. It seems safe to assume GW will be incorporating the escalation rules and stronghold rules into the BRB, and also releasing more of these super heavies. I understand where the post is coming from, but the deathstars mentioned above are going to have to deal with spam super heavies, D weapons that don’t care about 2++ (a major point sink if the unit is going to spend its time running away, possibly into another Knight?), and having to waste time and effort avoiding the knights in general. There are tactics that can’t be appreciated until the units are tested with what’s currently available.
Also, I certainly hope tournament organizers allow the use of all escalation and stronghold rules. They are, after all, a part of the rules. Coming from a non-tau, non-eldar, non-chesserburgering player, it only seems fair to allow everyone to use the rules to the fullest extent. Not just the players that have a particular army that works really well without resort to the other rule books. The legitimacy of banning rules that make the game more even, when tournaments have 4-5 of the top players all playing the same army (with similar builds) draws into question the legitimacy of disallowing certain rule books.
Also, why does everyone think that Chaos or Xenos will be able to use Imperial Knights. I know there is no rule against it, but they are “Imperial.” Perhaps Xenos, but i’ll bet money Chaos won’t be able.
We’ve tried unrestricted Escalation and Stronghold, honestly, it is totally out of whack. Like, no fun at all with truly unrestricted use of Super Heavies. They may kill the Deathstars but they will then become the new Deathstars.
That is the nature of the Warhammer beast. First it was GKs, then it was Heldrakes, then Tau/Eldar/Daemons/Taudar, soon it will be super heavies. At least if the superheavies are made equally, which the Imperial Knights might be a signal of (if all the imperial forces can ally them and the other forces get similar units), then everyone will have a chance to have a winning army. We may also seem some diversification of armies. Again, it’s all conjecture at this point, but wouldn’t a horde army with MSUs be able to tie up those knights while other bigger units (such as certain psykers and vector strikers) dwindle them down?
Yeah, Hordes would tie him up unles he rolled hot on his River Dance attack.
I love the new knights but do you think armies that haven’t had any new escalation/apocalypse support will get anything soon like a new tyranid GMC, A chaos version of a knight would look awesome.
I sincerely hope we get a Chaos Knight! I heard rumors that perhaps FW would do that. We’ll see!
allowing armys that can take super heavies just opens up the revenant and that is by far the most unbalanced super heavy a person can take then just add guide and its over for anyone who didn’t bring one.that being said if t.o’s didn’t allow folks to bring then elder people would just qq.
i also get that u can bring void shields but than were back to a arms race and an auto include of as many void shields as possible. just my thought i think super heavies and fortifications are good if used correctly its just what can be abused will.
I agree. Void shields become mandatory, and subsequently void shield busters become mandatory.
How doe the super heavies work? Are you able to blow it up with just one pen hit with a melta gun or do you have to strip all the hull points?
No, you cannot one shot them, they are much harder to kill.
If all Knight armies become legal what is even the point of playing Kill Points, Relic, and Emperor’s Will. How do you win a KP fight against 5 models? How do you stop 5 SCORING super heavies from grabbing the Relic?
I see GW not calling these guys Lords of War as a simple work around to allow them to sell more models. They function exactly like a LoW in every way. I think that if they are played then the opponent needs to have access to Stronghold and Esccalation as well so they have the tools to kill these things. It is silly for some guy with 5 Super Heavy Walkers to come to the table and say, “Hey, GW says that MY super heavy is a regular codex unit, but yours is not, so you can’t play that Stompa b/c we don’t allow Escalation.”
Many TAC armies will go into a battle against a Knight army knowing that anything with less than S6 will play no combat role at all in the battle, all these guys do is incourage the one-sided armies we now see. If you do not load down on AT gun you cannot kill them fast enough, if you do, you had better not play any type of horde/MSU style list or you will really struggle. Seams like it will make games more about what you bring and what the other guy brought instead of being about who played the best.
Why not just count them as a Lord of War, limit them to 1 per army, and play them just like any other Escalation unit? GW wants them as a “Codex” so they can sell more of them but the rule clearly fall in line with a relatively cheap Lord of War. Don’t fall for this clear manipulation guys. I want a tactics based 40k, not a matchup based 40k.
Really didn’t think about the potential of spamming these things on the board, that could seriously jeopardize a good game. I totally agree with everything you stated here, good points.
I think the Knights aren’t overpowered (for now), and I believe they could play well in standard 40k games, given the fact that many other factions bring MC business to the table that could potentially harm a Knight quite well and costs almost half it’s points.
But, I haven’t played with/against them yet, so my point of view is absolutely not based on any facts.
I mean a 4++ save is no game changer, and a couple of bunker down lascannon teams could potentially destroy a knight in 2 turns. It’s easy to hit, cuz it’s so damn big, so cover won’t be much of an issue (Of course u got to roll well).
Of course it cannot be destroyed with a roll of a 6 on the damage chart, but let’s not forget you can glance it to death.
I want to see how they play, I definitely think that in skilled hands they will perform extremely well. But I also think that you are sacrificing a huge chunk of points of your list to take one. Points that might be well placed elsewhere?
In the end I believe that it is just so much harder to take out a Riptide, or the Wraithknight than a Imperial Knight, just my point of view.
Yeah, I feel the same as you do. I think the Knight will be a good tool, much like a WK, but with limitations which are great as it balances it out. I really look forward to trying it out!
Knights are tougher than either a Ridtide or Wraithknight, and i all fairness they should be becasue of the points difference. But AV13 with 6 HP is basically the same as Toughness 9 with a 4++ and 6 wounds (assuming no explosions) Knights will catch and kill Riptides in one swing, Wraithknights die too but atleast have a chance to go first and do some damamge, maybe even kill it but it would take a super roll to do it.
Alot of people are saying that Necrons Night Scythes can kill them. Yes they can, but those flyers have at most 3 rounds of shooting in the whole game b/c they cannot hover. A night scythe will get one crack at a Knight and then the night moves atleast 6 inches toward it and the scythe must over fly. Best results are 3 rounds of shooting. More then enough to kill one, but no where near enough to kill for example, the 5 Knights you can take at 1850. . . Not to mention you better go 1st or the knights might table all the rest of your stuff by turn 2 if you go heavy flyer. Those Knights are fast, have big guns, and are tall so they are hard to hide from, not to mention their swinging D…
Night Scythes can kill him sure, but so what? Haha, any Anti-Armor weapon can. He is still a tough beastie.
so, they are indeed going to be a “new” race, as in I may create an army made entirely of these mechs?? Nice GW, go ahead and release a NEW RACE BEFORE YOU UPDATE THE ORK CODEX!
I am excited or the Knights, but yeah, Orks need some love.
I don’t have a problem with one Knight, but multiple ones is a bit much. Lords of War were created to be one per army. These guys can be fielded in groups of 3 even as allies. Seems like a bit much. GW is smart enough to realize that we are not biting on the Escalation thing and so the only way to sell a bunch of knights is to make them a “Codex” (though it is a poor excuse for a codex when it consists of one model.) By simply changing the book these guys come in GW is tricking us into running whole armies of these in “regular 40K,” I fear that many in the community will fal for this… It’s a super heavy. Do we want our regular 40k games to turn into Apoc Lite? They are trying to force this change on us to palying with super heavies in large numbers… yet one more rock/paper to add to the games already match up based system.
I think it would be wise to limit them to 1 per army just like LoW, and to allow people playing against them to take Stronghold and Escalation units to counter them. It is not fair for one guy to get to use his Knight and another guy not get to use his Stompa… they are very similar units, GW just happened to work the rules on one of them differently to encourage sales. We can either blindly follow their lead or use our brains and stop this obvious money grab. They are coming out with a new “Codex,” and new models when Sisters badly need a plastic kit, Orcs need a new book, Blood Angels need a rules revamp, and the list goes on. For $140 the rules for these things should come in the dang box any way!
Please 40k community do not let them force mini-apoc on all of us, as this will again spark even more of a plastic arms race…