Ode to DWKs (The Xenos-bane)

[SvenONE]

This weekend I participated in a 1250 tournament at my local shop.  3 games, BGNT, Purge and Relic+Emperor's Will (relic worth 5).  All on a 4x4.  My list was Ezekiel with 3 tac squads, and scouts, RWAS/MMAB and 9 DWKs.  My opponents were Orks, Tyranids (new codex), Orks. I went W, L, D respectively.  Though the last game I should have won, I face Orks so seldomly I'm not familiar with all of their stat lines and nor was my opponent, he was wounding my bikes on 5s, when it should have been 6s (I charged him).

 

By the end of the games (all of them ended on 5) I had either 1 or 2 Knights left still stuck in combat, with a trail of corpses behind them.

 

My first game they took about 60 shoota shots on their DWA turn, and then eventually mowed down 1 squad of boyz (25) and then tied up another 25 to contest an objective and deny it.  

 

Against the tyranids they took out 6 warriors and 2 terma broods, but that game was a mess because I had 3 monstrous creatures vector striking all of my poor poor tacticals.

 

Last game was a real treat.  By my calculations I took roughly ~90 shots, losing only 1 and proceeded to mow down 1 squads of boyz entirely.  They deep struck near a footslogging Ezekiel who was beset by the green tide.  A presence on Knights is truly a thing of beauty!!

 

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that in this particular situation TH/SS terms probably wouldn't have done me much better.  The extra toughness, HOW, initiative hits, hitting on 3s were all huge.  Not to say that TH/SS would have performed worse, but the Knights were a true winner on the day.  Soaking up shots like no other and rolling particularly well.  I like to run DWKs when I don't run RW lists because I like the models and use them as a centerpiece of my armies.  I had a hoot of a time with them vs all of these Xenos.  Which was really refreshing given how I've played a ton of power armor armies in the last 3 months (with the occasional Necron, which may as well be SM).  LC Terms would certainly have proven successful as well, but the Knights I think are better suited for the for the task.

 

So if you're debating ever bringing DWKs against a Xenos/horde enemy, give them a shot and make sure you get them into combat asap.  Let them soak those shots up and tarpit those silly enough to charge them.

 

[shabbadoo]

Orks are pretty much the optimal army for DWKs to put a whoopin' on.  Orks have only a Warboss, Big Mek, and Meganobz that can/do have a better than 4+ save (at least for now), and only one vehicle , the AV 12 Deffdread (which is Initiative 2 and so will still get popped first by DWKs) to stand up to them.  Everything else is meat for the DWK meat grinder.  DWKs can beat up Tyranids fairly well too.  Orks are pretty bad off right now against most everything.  Hopefully it will even out for them come June.  For now, Orks are the littlest kid on the block, and the bullies are just beating the green snot out of them.

[Bunta]

Good to hear someone else who loves these guys as much as I do!

[march10k]

disagree about DWKs owning nids. Sure, they make a mess of the little ones, but T5 doesn't count for much, and a single round of smite won't get you far, when you're facing nidzilla.

 

At the same time, of course a 9 man knight squad is going to do a lot better than a 5 man squad. As they say in engine design, "there is no replacement for displacement." Eight maces are going to do things that four can't. Anecdotal evidence of the power of a 9 man squad of knights doesn't translate into general "knights are great" truth. Give me fifteen scout sentinels, and I'll do things you didn't think an AV10 vehicle was capable of! And this is coming from the author of the DW netlist du jour, which features DWK!

[SvenONE]

That's why I specifically put the bit in about horde army at the end. Obviously multiple flyrants will cause you headaches (as they did for me), but I've faced tervigon armies (albeit with their previous codex) and they've come in handy.

 

Sure T5 doesn't count much against MCs, but I think you'd rather have T5 than T4 when facing S6 enemies, more to that a 3++ also helps.

 

As I said, in the particular situations I found myself in, Knights were doing more for me; not that they are the best all-around option or a must-take.

 

Hardly a truth. Mostly a suggestion.

[MadMek83]

DWK are absolute bane of Orks when they hit initiative, meaning orks can't hit back. Its HUGE bonus, considering how much attacks ork blob can produce.