An ode to Deathwing knights

[Darkangeldentist]

Stalwart bastions of strength and might

Implacable judge of the traitor's plight

None shall escape their baleful sight

Give solemn praise to the Deathwing knights!

 

 

So maybe I'm going a bit far in my praise of this unit but my last couple of games have seen this unit shine for me in a way I had never expected or seen from any other in 40K. In my last couple of games a six strong unit has impressed me no end and swung each game profoundly.

 

The first was against Chaos in a heresy era game as part of a wider campaign that a local gaming group has been running. The Deathwing knights took out over 20 chaos space marines, a hell brute and practically an entire 10 strong unit of chaos terminators! The deathtoll was stupefying and even though the foe was precisely what they are intended to deal with it was still shocking to see a unit so efficiently destory all before them. First they took the charge of a 15 strong unit for no casualties, reducing their numbers to a mere 4 survivors who broke and fled leaving me free to attempt the rescue of some black knights battling against a similar horde of chaos marines. With the advantage of the charge they wiped out this second unit, consolidating into position ready to receive the charge of a hellbrute. Which got the smite treatment, reducing it to scrap in a single round and allowing me to advance up to his terminators and crush them. The renegades armour proved only slightly tougher to breach than the chaos marines due to the number of wounds caused.

 

It was just amazing and wonderful to see such carnage. There is something ridiculous though about the concept of a Deathwing knight killing a chaos terminator with a hammer of wrath attack! (Glorious moment in the game but oh so terrible at the same time.)

 

Second game was against the perfidious Eldar made up of a mostly mechanised force against my otherwise Ravenwing army. On the second turn Sammael left his command squad to lead the knights into the farseer's jetbike unit catching them with a daring charge that saw Sammael fail to bring down the farseer but jetbikers were annihilated and Sammael allowed the knights to hit and run out of combat to surprise the wave serpents carrying their dire avenger cargo. A disordered charge and smite mode to ensure both tanks went down that round meant the eldar were forced to attempt a desperate charge from the aspect warriors after their guns failed to make any impact through the storm shields and terminator armour. The aliens attacks were futile and the knights crushed the xenos with their mauls before morale broke and the Eldar fled.

 

 

When our codex was released and I first looked at this unit I thought they were impressive. First couple of games though highlighted the problems of a purely melee unit in a game where guns are firmly back in the forefront of battle. It always took a lot of fire to bring them down but my opponents tended to be able to do just that and I made errors in positioning and providing distrations to help deliver them. Taking a slightly bigger unit and always making sure that opponents have multiple immediate threats to deal with and they have been impressing me more and more.

 

 

They are not suitable for every army and some types of Dark angel force will struggle to fit them in more than others. I do not think the Deathwing knights fit in pure Deathwing armies very well due to non-scoring status and the low model count nature of those forces. Perhaps oddly I have found them to make a very nice addition to a Ravenwing army where they make a solid hammer unit to drop in using the teleport homers and divert enemy attention. Regular greenwing lists can use them in place of regular terminators fairly well but it's very much dependent on what you want done. However they are an excellent attrition unit and not really much more expensive than regular Deathwing. (They work out cheaper than thunder hammer terminators.)

 

Anyway, forgive my indulgent praise of Deathwing knights. If you have any stories of achievements from this wonderful unit, please share and add them to this thread.

[Pbenner]

I have always found them solid when I've taken them.  This coming from a pure DW player;  I agree with your note that they are a limited use choice for the DW players.  

 

I've taken them in many of the mega-battles I've played, and they are very solid for what they are designed to do.  They eat CSM, and can make anything else wanting to stand toe to toe with them back down by force.  

 

I don't knock them.

 

Paul

[SvenONE]

Love that I'm not the only one who will periodically make posts praising their exploits with Deathwing Knights!!  They are probably the best anti-chaos unit out there in the entire game, so if you know your opponent is C:CSM muster your knights!  They are also great Xenos killers. 

 

I think the people who consider them ok are usually framing their argument in a situation where Knights are fighting Space Marines, in which yes, they aren't that great.  Against everyone else though? As long as you can get them close to something to hit you're good.  If they spend more than 1 turn out of combat they start losing their effectiveness pretty fast.

[Gillyfish]

Hmm, makes me want to get my unit painted up and ready to go all the more!

[Darkangeldentist]

I am in total agreement with you SvenONE, they are ridiculous against chaos and great against xenos. I'm pretty happy with how good they are against regular marines as well, the knight master can take down marines quite easily and the sheer number of wounds you inflict every round take their toll pretty quickly. The WS 5 helps so much in ensuring they get enough hits every round.

 

Currently I am absolutely smitten by Sammael leading them, the bike extends their threat significantly due to his ability to move further ahead (2" coherency plus Sammael's base) but most wonderfully of all he effectively gives the unit hit and run! That can be amazing! Having those knights jump (on average) 10" from the combat they were in to then move and charge again (using Sammael to extend that threat once again) meaning they can cover a huge distance. (For regular infantry at least.) It's been a brutal combo so far and it really adds a whole new dimension of threat to a ravenwing army, especially when going first.

[Hidicul]

I am in total agreement with you SvenONE, they are ridiculous against chaos and great against xenos. I'm pretty happy with how good they are against regular marines as well, the knight master can take down marines quite easily and the sheer number of wounds you inflict every round take their toll pretty quickly. The WS 5 helps so much in ensuring they get enough hits every round.

 

Currently I am absolutely smitten by Sammael leading them, the bike extends their threat significantly due to his ability to move further ahead (2" coherency plus Sammael's base) but most wonderfully of all he effectively gives the unit hit and run! That can be amazing! Having those knights jump (on average) 10" from the combat they were in to then move and charge again (using Sammael to extend that threat once again) meaning they can cover a huge distance. (For regular infantry at least.) It's been a brutal combo so far and it really adds a whole new dimension of threat to a ravenwing army, especially when going first.

You sir are evil, I like it. Might have to try that when I get a box of these guys.

[Bunta]

I love them too. I always play against my nephews chaos Marines and my Knights never fail to wreck whatever I point them at :)

[march10k]

~grumble~  Still doesn't make up for them smiting a trygon for ONE wound.