Chaos Knights Supplement...

[Dark_Apostle_XVII]

After spending several weeks converting and painting my own Chaos Knight, it was a shame to see that Forge World had not jumped on this trend and provided rules in Imperial Armour 13. However, reading through the book has given me some ideas of an alternative for friendly games (similar to Forge World's experimental rules) until such times as we get something official.

Please do let me know what you guys think, and if you would be willing to play against someone using these rules in friendly games.

* = Theory behind rules and pricing.

 

This is what I came up with:

 

Levels of Alliance: (Same as Chaos Space Marines)

Battle Brothers: Chaos Space Marines, Chaos Daemons, Renegades and Heretics.

Allies of Convenience: Orks, Necrons.

Desperate Allies: Dark Eldar, Tau.

Come the Apocalypse: Forces of the Imperium, Eldar, Tyranids.

 

Chaos Knights have the same profile as an Imperial Knight with the following additional Special Rules and Options.

 

Special Rules

 

Legacy of Vengeance: The Chaos Knight’s betrayal has been long remembered by his former allies.

If one or more Chaos Knights are included in your army, any opposing Imperial Knights gain the Hatred (Chaos Knights) Special Rule.

 

Traitors Honour: Although greatly corrupted, the ideal of meeting ones foe in single combat has not been lost and every Chaos Knight relishes the opportunity to fell one of his loyalist brethren.

The Chaos Knight has the Preferred Enemy (Imperial Knights) Special Rule.

 

*These two Special Rules off set one another and so I did not think a points change was needed*

 

Options

 

May take any of the following:

• A Dirge Caster (10 Points)
• A Carapace Mounted Havoc Launcher (15)
• Warpflame Gargoyles (5)

 

Chaos Knights may be upgraded to one of the following:

• Daemon Knight (75 Points)
• Dark Mechanicus Knight (50)

Daemon Knight – The Knight has dedicated himself to one of the Chaos Gods and now acts as a vessel for a Greater Daemon.

A Daemon Knight has the Daemon Special Rule and must select one of the following alignments (counting as a Daemon of that alignment).

 

*The Daemon Knight Rules are based heavily on the rules for the Warhound Titan in Imperial Armour 13 as it is the closest comparable unit. Any Modifications will be explained in the entry. A fixed price of 75 seemed fair as the cost for the Warhound upgraded was raised, lowered or added to depending on the effectiveness of it on a Knight Titan*

 

Daemon Knight of Khorne

Hatred (Daemons of Slaanesh),

May re-roll the dice when determining the number of stomps the Knight can make,

+d3 Attacks on any turn it successfully charges an enemy unit.

*25 Points more expensive than the Warhound as the Knight is more effective in combat, thus this rule is better*

 

Daemon Knight of Nurgle

Hatred (Daemons of Tzeentch),

It Will Not Die.

*25 Point Decrease as the Knight has fewer Hull Points and a lower Armour Value so this rule is marginally less effective*

 

Daemon Knight of Tzeentch

Hatred (Daemons of Nurgle),

May re-roll all failed To Hit and To Wound rolls of 1.

*No Points Change. However, to make up for the fact that the Knight has fewer weapons that the Warhound (able to use the re-roll less), he may also re-roll To Wound*

 

Daemon Knight of Slaanesh

Hatred (Daemons of Khorne),

All models with a Ld value in base to base contact with the Daemon Knight must pass a Ld test with a -2 modifier or reduce their Initiative value to 1 for the duration of that fight sub-phase.

*25 Points Increase as once again, the Knight is more effective in combat and so will get more use from this rule*

 

 

Dark Mechanicus Knight – Instead of dedicating himself to a single deity, the Chaos Knight has formed an alliance with the Dark Mechanicus; gaining a measure of Daemonic Power in exchange for his service.

A Dark Mechanicus Knight has the Daemonforge and Rage Special Rules.

 

Finally, a Chaos Knight who has NOT been upgraded to a Daemon Knight (similar reasoning as why Daemon Engines cannot select a Legacy of Ruin) may select Legacies of Ruin from Imperial Armour 13 at the points cost for Super Heavy Walkers, subject to the limits set out in Imperial Armour.

[FENRISÚLFUR]

While I don't have IA13, I think this is a great start to some home brew rules for chaos Knights! I was let down that GW did not take the opportunity to include chaos variants when they released the knights, but my wallet was thankful for that.

 

Another thing that would be nice to add to this would be the chaos vehicle armory options. Things like dirge casters would be nice to have

[Dark_Apostle_XVII]

Cheers mate!

Good point about the Dirge Casters. Wasn't going to add that option to avoid making it too powerful. However, I then noticed the Warhoud Titan comes with one as standard so it seems right to add that as an option as the rules are influenced by the Warhound a lot. But at 10 points instead of 5 as it is better on a Knight than a normal tank.

Updated the rules above to include.

Other than that though, didn't think any of the armoury options were worth it as the only two I considered were redundant. For example, Daemonic Possession/Resiliance is useless as Super Heavies already ignore Crew Stunned/Shaken and is kind of represented already with the Daemon Knight option.

Warpflame gargoyles was the other potential option but as Soul Blaze comes with the Daemon Knight of Tzeentch if would reduce the appeal of that rule if you could buy half of it anyway. That would not be good as currently I feel all four dedications are equally appealing for different reasons and changing that balance for Tzeentch pretty much right that option off.

*Well, as equal as they can be. Obviously some are better than others in competative terms, but they are at least all good enough that if say I wanted to play mono-god with a Knight I wouldn't feel hard done by limiting myself to just one dedication (unlike the Marks of Chaos - Mark of Tzeencth is pretty much useless on any unit withough an Inv Save).

Thanks for the comments though.

[incinerator950]

The problem is FW and primarily GWs stance is that the Knights are glorious demi-god heroes for the good guys.

 

Whenever they do get around to it, they're going to probably revive the epic Chaos demon engines rather than just put spikes on a Errant or Lancer. IA13 made a tiny illusion to Chaos knights, but it's insignificant until you speculate over it.

[Lord Kallozar]

yes please please bring back the daemon engines!!!!

[Strazhakov]

Like the rules. They seem powerful but not overpowered. If I had any Knights I'd give those rules a try.

 

Also I really want a Slaanesh Subjugator mini from FW. Would be the perfect super heavy LoW addition to a sonic force.

[Noctem Cultor]

Id like to see an option for houses aligned to Chaos with similar rules. It does feel a waste but they are called Imperial Knights so I imagine we will get things like the Decimator Daemon Engine being added to the same power level of the Knights.

[Lord Asvaldir]

Seems well balanced, nicely done. 

 

One note, why not just let it take options from the chaos vehicle list? Obviously stuff like extra armor does nothing, but mounting a havoc launcher on it seems acceptable. 

[Skallagoose]

With how successful the Knights have sold i wouldn't be surprised to see a knight- like equivalent for Chaos. Im not just meaning a knight supplement book with a lancer or something- I mean daemon engines. Something that acts similar to a knight titan but is uniquely chaos.

[the jeske]

doesn't soul blaze work on per unit level and not per weapon lvl. So no matter what weapons will be given it will still proc only one time?

 

for 25 pts it could have one caster lvl or something actualy useful[even the +1inv would work].

[Dark_Apostle_XVII]

@Lord Kallozar, Strazhakov and Noctem Cultor - Thanks for the compliments guys. Really glad to hear you think they are nicley balanced and reasonably priced; even better to hear you would actually play them too.

Never played Epic, so not familiar with the Chaos Knights (and equivalents) available then. But if they are that good, I too would love to see something like that instead of just 'Knights with spikes'. However, for now all we have is Imperial Knights and short of inventing a whole new unit (which is much harder to balance) this supplement is working with what we have until something better is done. So yeah, really appreciate the compliments instead of speculating about whether GW will ever do something similar; or if they did, why it wouldn't be like this as that is not what this is for.

 

@Lord Asvaldir - Thanks man! Fair point of the equipment list. I added mor eoptions in.

 

@Jeske - Nice catch on the Soul Blaze, forgotten about that. It definitely makes it a pointless option in the Tzeencth upgrade.

 

+++ More options added to wargear and Tzeentch rules tweeked +++

 

Also, please remember this is just for fun. I am aware Knights are seen as the 'exemplars of good' and that GW is unlikely to do rules like this if at all. However, that is all speculation. We do know Chaos Knights exist in the fluff, and more importantly, many of us have converted our own we want to use.

These rules are an option to do that in a more fun and fluffy way than just using Imperial Knights as standard, until such a time as we have something better.

 

So, to summarise. These are not the rules we deserve for such an awesome concept, but the rules we need to fill a gap until such a time.

[sitnam]

I agree that if GW was to expand on this, daemon engine knight equivalents are probably what Chaos would get. Really the Lord of Skulls isnt far off from what knights are

[Xenith]

Good ideas, but the tzeentch one is redundant. The knight gets preferred enemy: knights, while Tzeentch gives him PE: Everything.

 

Although PE: Everything is ok on a battlecannon, I guess.