A (not so) Humble Review of Knight Allies for Scions

[Master Antaeus]

Disclaimer: I typed this whole thing up during a raging thunderstorm.  As I was wrapping up and going back over what I had written, the power went out and I began spewing black fluid all over my desk in rage.  By that, I mean, I went out to the kind of Mexican place that does their best work around 2 in the morning and got nachos.  I'm still pissed, though, so if I seem slightly more biased than in other reviews, it is because

 

A lot of people say that Knights and Scions go together like chocolate and peanut butter.  Boy howdy, those people are right!  Knights fill in many of the considerable number of cracks in our codex, giving us more tactical flexibility than ever before.

But not all Knights are created equal.  There are different flavors of Knight and Master Antaeus is here to help you sort them out.

 

Pros:

-Target priority: very few opponents can afford to ignore a Knight, so all of those anti-tank weapons that would ordinarily be sent to kill your tauroxes and fragile Scions are instead directed against the metal bully you fielded.

 

-Resilient: Even if you are a complete idiot and your opponent is very good, he or she must still devote considerable resources to removing it as a threat. 

 

-Fast: Again, even if you are a complete idiot, a Knight moves as fast as jump infantry.  Unlike jump infantry, your knight does not care how many bolters, lasguns or pulse rifles are pointed at it.

 

-Fun: Knights are so big and armored and cuddly, it's hard not to love them.  They're fun to look at, fun to build (sort of) fun to paint and they're even hilarious when they die and create a massive explosion that hopefully takes your opponent's Sternguard or Grav Centurions down along with it.

Cons

 

-Expensive: On the other hand, if your opponent does draw out your Knight and kill it, you have lost a significant number of points in one go.

 

-Explosive: When a Knight dies, there is a decent chance that it will explode.  If your scions are near it, a lot of them may cease to exist.  If you are not prepared, this can be very inconvenient.  Pay attention.

 

-Known: The other day, I went to my local gaming hole to play a game with a buddy and there were about 60 guys playing a 40k tournament, so no tables were available and we went to another local gaming hole.  Before I left, I noted that about 3/5 of the tables had at least one Knight, and I saw many more in people's army transports.  This is bad because it means the Knights are a known quantity and any TAC list your opponent builds is likely to assume you will have one of these and have already planned how he or she is going to kill or neutralize it.

 

Position Dependent: Because it is a vehicle, position and facing are more important to a Knight than any other big walker (riptide, wraithknight) both because the Ion shield can only protect one facing and because drop pods exist.  Ideally, you want to end your turn with your knight's back against a wall or large obstruction. The short range on many Knight weapons often dictates where you are able to place it and, thus, gives your opponent more options to destroy it.  Rest assured; your opponent will attempt to destroy it.

 

Tactically Demanding: As such a large points sink, the Knight isn't as plug and play as it looks.  If you use a Knight to shoot exclusively, you will not see its maximum effectiveness.  If you hurl it into assault, your opponent will destroy it.  Much like a space marine tactical squad, you must intelligently manage risk while your Knight moves, draws fire (it will), returns fire and, when it benefits you the most, assaults.

 

Can't Overwatch: This is something to keep in mind as most walkers can overwatch.  It makes weapons such as the gatling gun less attractive.

 

Carapace Weapons (Any knight can take these except the Gallant)

 

-Ironstorm Missile Launcher: A single large pie plate that hits as hard as a heavy bolter from very far away for the cost of a pair of plasma guns.  Not bad, but if you want a carapace weapon, there are better choices.

 

-Twin Icarus Autocannon: Just a few more points than the Ironstorm, and vastly more useful.  2 respectable anti-aircraft shots that take place (hopefully) in your opponent's turn.  Considering that your Knight can never be shaken, stunned or suffer weapon destroyed, this is pretty good.  A tad expensive, considering it costs as much as a quad gun and shoots half as much as the same.

 

-Stormspear Rockets: Heh.  For the cost of 4 meltaguns, you can get the equivalent of 3 krak missiles.  These price descriptions make me think of a world where meltaguns are used as currency; I shall call this world late 4th Edition WH40k.  Anyway, if your opponent has set up a good crossfire trap that you don't want to walk into, this will give you serious weight of fire to destabilize that trap.  Try parking a Knight with this upgrade on a skyfire nexus and watch your opponent's aircraft fly apart like skeet.

 

Stuff every Knight has

 

-Heavy stubber: primarily for anti-infantry, the Knight's super heavy status makes this actually useful for clearing out the last one or two members of that melta squad that deep struck near you last turn.  Don't forget about this one.

 

-Ion Shield: lets you put a 4++ on the facing of your choice at the beginning of your opponent's shooting phase.  Nice!

 

-Reaper Chainsword: the strength D weapon everyone complains about.  If your opponent begins bellyaching, remind him or her that the best smiley faces use a D.  ; D

 

Upgrade Weapons (any knight can take this and one even starts with it)

 

-Thunderstrike Gauntlet: Hits just as hard as the Reaper Chainsword, but you can throw dead vehicles and monstrous creatures at other units.  Hilarious, but as a different flavor of Strength D, its really only good for replacing that ghastly looking chainsword.  Oh, it also makes you go last.  I use one, even though the chainsword is mathematically better just because I hate the look of the thing.

 

-Meltagun: Knights can cough up their stubbers for a meltagun.  I do not recommend this as no enemy vehicle within 12" of a Knight is even remotely safe and the stubber gives you more options in combat for reasons stated above.

 

Relics:

 

-Banner of Macharius Triumphant: Costs as a meltagun.  At the range of a meltagun, any friendly Armies of the Imperium unit can re-roll morale, pinning and fear.  Not bad for the points, but if you have Scions on foot within melta range of your knight, if it explodes suddenly, it can cause many more morale checks than it saved you. 

 

-Paragon Gauntlet: A master crafted thunderstrike gauntlet for the cost of a plasma gun.  Your knight has a strength 10 hammer of wrath, 3 regular attacks (+1 for charge!) and its stomps; this weapon is not necessary.  That said, if you hate the way the chainsword looks, you might as well shell out the extra few points to get this.

 

-Sanctuary: For the cost of a plasma gun, you can get a 6++ on any facing not currently protected by your ion shield.  More useful than you might think if your local gaming hole, or at least your side of the table has a lack of LoS blocking terrain.

 

-Ravager: A hopped up reaper chainsword for the cost of a power fist that re-rolls to-hit rolls of 1.  Meh.  The chainsword your Knight started with is perfectly serviceable.  The difference is not as dramatic as, say, upgrading a chainsword to a power axe. 

 

-Helm of the Nameless Warrior: Gives the rampage USR for the cost of a pair of plasma guns.  You will probably get some mileage out of this, especially if you like to race forward and stomp things, but I find that having it tempts you to use it and nothing but your unfettered will should determine where your Knight goes and what your Knight does.

 

-Mark of the Omnissiah: Gives the It Will Not Die USR for the cost of a pair of plasma guns.  I used to think that this was fairly extraneous and that these points could be spent better on... well, a pair of plasma guns.  I was wrong.  In an allied game where there is only one Knight on your side, this is actually a very nice piece of gear.  At its points, it's not an auto-include, but certainly worth your consideration.

 

Knight Types

-Knight Errant: Armed with a Thermal Cannon, this Knight is a close fire variant and the relatively short range of its weapon means you might have to make tough choices as to where to place it.  I intensely dislike this as nothing should dictate the position and facing of your Knight unless it's completely what you want it to be, especially on tables with sparse terrain.

 

-Knight Paladin: The best Knight ally as far as I'm concerned with its two shot battle cannon.  The gun itself has enough range to comfortably engage targets on the next table over at your local gaming hole.  Imagine the look on that warcaster's face when he gets shot with a real cannon!  I digress.  The Knight's gun allows you to position your vulnerable facings wherever you want and still leave nothing safe on the table.  Its weight of fire with two high strength shots (at respectable AP) compensates for its slack of physical presence if you use your Knight to hold a particularly contentious objective or bottleneck (which means you won't be assaulting unless someone drops near you).  Likewise, the rapid fire BC lets you do better crowd control than any other Knight weapon.  I know, I know;  Knights excel at crowd control, but not from six feet away.  Not the best Knight for every job, but better than all of the other Knights at all of the jobs.

 

-Knight Warden: Comes with a deadly 12 shot, rending avenger gatling cannon with heavy flamer.  Nice combination which makes your Knight deadly against elite infantry and light vehicles.  Unfortunately, this is a Scions article and those are literally the only two jobs your scions are good at.  In a Knight army, this guy would have a place.  In an allied army, unless you really like the look of that sexy gun, he does not.

 

-Knight Gallant: All of the problems the Errant has, the Gallant has worse.  It is quite a bit cheaper and can't take a carapace weapon.  With two close combat weapons (a gauntlet and a chainsword) it can only assault and draw fire.  In an all Knight army, this thing probably wrecks face and eats lunch, but as an ally it is not tactically flexible enough to support Scions well.

 

-Knight Crusader: I must admit, I have never seen a Crusader used, much less used one myself, so this is part of the review is based on pure conjecture. A beautiful centerpiece in your army, this thing is quite a bit more expensive than your standard Knight, but comes with both a thermal cannon and an avenger gatling gun.  You can upgrade the thermal cannon to a rapid fire BC, but I think, in this case, this is not the best call.  The thermal and avenger both have the same range, though you can always opt to shoot a more distant target if you had the battle cannon.  I don't know if it's worth it for the points, but one of these with IWND and Stormspear rockets would cost almost 500 points and would put out an unholy amount of fire on the move.  I guess it really depends on how much you like titan stomp, because for this many points, you are in Shadowsword territory, with 50% more hull points and ten real feet of str D projection.   On the other hand, the Knight has more individually powerful weapons, though it's all pretty abstract at that point.  If you are reading this and are experienced at the game and have fielded a Knight Crusader, feel free to put in your $.02, just don't be humble about it.

 

 

 

[Father Mehman]

What are you talking about when you say the Knight Gallant is not able to take a Carapace Weapon? Page 105, Codex: Imperial Knights V2

 

EDIT: More Content Below

 

The Heavy Stubber, in my experience (everyone please note what was just said. Thank you), is a horrid weapon. If you have two enemy models remaining in a squad after all firing has halted, give it a go, but not for the reason you might suspect. After you have fired your .30 calibre plink gun, please note that you may now be able to charge that unit legally. Say your allies had shot that enemy unit to the Warp and left two Characters alive, one of them ready to Summon some gribbles, you'll be happy that you're bringing the heat, son. (As an aside, a very funny scene from the Fifth Element starts that way with the whole "bring me some heat!")

 

Good stuff all around, really. The Heavy Stubber IS my little buddy- I just like to goad him into a fight every once-in-a-while.

[Ulrik_Ironfist]

When I tried the carapace weapons, I found them to be a bit meh. They didn't really add anything to my army, since there was nothing my paladin's RFBC couldn't handle. 

 

The Crusader seems like a good fire support unit, while the Paladin offers a mix of options. The Errant is a tank hunter plain and simple, though it's thermal cannon can hunt elite infantry (TEQs) fairly well, but it's medium ranged weapons are the problem, the errant needs support. 

 

The Paladin doesn't need as much support since he can blast anything on the table and then close with the threats to deal with them in melee. 

 

The warden seems like a purely anti infantry machine, but 12 shots of S6 might be enough to get around some cover saves, and rending makes it a threat to all vehicles. If you rolled even a quarter of them as 6's you may have just killed a land raider, certainly better odds than an assault cannon.

 

Knights are a great addition to a scion force, my suggestion is keep them away from the rest of your force, and try not to load them down with upgrades. Off the bat I'd say the helm is worth it, and maybe the missile launchers but I didn't find the carapace weapons particularly useful.

[march10k]

Hmm...I'm pessimistic about knights as allies for stormtroopers.  Stormtroopers have three weaknesses: lack of long range shooting, lack of melee, and lack of models.  A knight paladin helps with long range shooting.  While knights are boss in melee, a knight can really only handle one enemy unit at a time, and with a limited number of attacks and no melee invul, they really shouldn't be melee-ing most infantry...even a powerfisting sergeant is going to put some hurt on while the knight methodically squishes his squad members!  They have that nice melee D weapon, but it's really only any good against vehicles and ultra-elite shooty infantry like centurion devastators because of the low number of attacks relative to the number of bodies in the average squad.  It exacerbates the model count problem rather than helping.  On the plus side, it does attract a lot of attention, which is nice no matter which army it supports.  Overall, not a great ally.

[Master Antaeus]

March 10k- there is also stomp.  Stomp is how Knights do crowd control.

[march10k]

Meh...still unimpressed, but you have a point.

[Ulrik_Ironfist]

March, you have a point, I'm not saying the Knight is a great ally by itself (I haven't had any luck fielding a knight and just stormtroopers), but paired with other allies, like say Imperial Guard, who can cover the volume of fire deficiency. Now, I have to say that is more effective.

 

Or allying a melee component in would also work, like say, arjac's shieldbrothers. This is where formations really shine, so you can take only what you need and none of what you don't (mostly). a turn 2 Wolf Guard thunderstrike would also work well. or turn 1 voidclaws, my wolves offer many variations, to assist in melee, for in expensive. You could always use the rampart detachment for some melee as well.

 

The knight alone isn't sufficient, but with other allies it makes a fine addition.

[hendrik]

how about all the cerastus variants? i've not been able to field my new knight acheron, but i can see it working well with my armoured regiment, due to it's speed which i can use to flank, thus forcing my opponent to open up and choosing where he'll direct his anti armour, as well as it's ability to incinerate anything that gets too close, bar 2+ armour

[WarriorFish]

A good read, especially as I plan to have my Knight done in the near future :D

[Father Mehman]

I feel like trying out a Knight Gallant in addition to my Knight Paladin with my Scions now. If I could bump it up to three Knight, all the better, but then you're playing a Knight army with Scions as allies, basically . Anyway, equip the Knight Gallant with the Ironstorm Missile Pod (the S 5 AP4 Large Blast one) so that he can wipe out some infantry along with the Knight Paladin's Rapid Fire Battle Cannon (RFBC) and clear a path to the vehicles. Once the Knight Gallant starts Assaulting the vehicles, it's pretty much gravy on his end as they still have to contend with the Knight Paladin's RFBC.

Drive the Scions up behind them using the Ground Assault Formation and open up on anything else that could charge the Knights' slaughterfest.

[march10k]

how about all the cerastus variants? i've not been able to field my new knight acheron, but i can see it working well with my armoured regiment, due to it's speed which i can use to flank, thus forcing my opponent to open up and choosing where he'll direct his anti armour, as well as it's ability to incinerate anything that gets too close, bar 2+ armour

 

I'd go for a knight-lancer.  Why?  Knights are there for D weapon melee combat (and to look pretty).  Anything they can do in the shooting phase, an equivalent points value of other stuff does better.  So why not sell out to melee entirely in order to ensure that you not only crump tanks and stuff, but other knights, perhaps even titans, as well?  5 I5 attacks on the charge against a regular knight's 3 I4 attacks that are -1 to hit you and you get a 5++?  Sold!  To be honest, though, its gun isn't horrible even compared to the shooting of a balanced knight...6 S7 AP2 shots at 18" isn't exactly a flashlight!