Considering an Imperial Knight.

[Paikis]

My army needs expanding, and I think I have enough anti-infantry. It's time for some heavier guns and I'm trying to decide between an Imperial Knight (a shooty one of some kind) or a couple tanks. I have a single tri-las predator already and I will probably either add another and a vindicator, or just go for 3 tri-las predators. But I do like the IK models.

 

I think the IK is slightly cheaper points-wise, but is the tank trio going to be more effective for their extra points?

 

 

[Charlo]

If you want tank hunting specifically, the knight isn't bad with it's melta cannon, but BA seem to do melta great already. Infernus pistols and meltacide squads (5man assault marine units with twin melta and combi/twin infernus on the sarge in a drop pod) or attack bikes & speeders fit the role nicely.

 

Personally for us the Knight is an incredible source of AP3 shooting. Double template battle cannon, gattling cannon and rocket pod means a lot of ap3 shooting, something we don't have much of.

 

Of course a combat knight is also complementary to us as it can keep up with and distract the enemy from the jump DC/ SG etc.

[dakkamasta]

I recently got a magnetised imperial knight. I've played it 4 times as a knight crusader and I have to admit, it fits perfectly with the aggresive style of play for BA. The amount of high strength AP 3 firepower it can dish out is amazing and the best part being that it has long range firepower. As BA our main weakness is long range high strength firepower and the knight allows you to be able to weaken elite and threatening squads (if it doesn't just completely obliterate them) and pop transports to allow your assault units to pick their targets more easily and be more effective in the assault. It doesnt need to be able to deal with high AV vehicles because we have plentiful amounts of melta to deal with that.

 

The knight can also act as pseudo-anti air, with 12 str 6 rending shots its bound to at least make a flyer jink, not to mention the 3 str 8 missiles or the skyfire gun (i prefer the missiles though). Furthermore the knight whether it was a D weapon or not can deal with many units in close combat due to its str 10 and ap 2 due to smash, plus stomps.

 

Also, due to the aggresive nature of BA, we usually don't have many units that stay back in our deployment zone, and since the knight can sit back and shoot all game at long range, it makes it harder for the opponent to choose their moves since they have to deal with a mast moving assault force, and at the same time have to deal with a superheavy walker thats unloading devastating firepower every turn.

 

Lastly, I've found a knight really shines in a mechanised force (for obvious reasons). Bringing vindicators/baal predators, even a Sicaran battle tank, can make it difficult for the opponent to bring down your vehicles because they'll need to ignore the tanks or ignore the knight, none of which the opponent will be happy about doing.

[LutherMax]

How many Melta bombs does a Crusader weigh in at, out of interest...

[Charlo]

It's between about 70 and 80

[LutherMax]

Hmmm... *rubs chin*

[Paikis]

How many Melta bombs does a Crusader weigh in at, out of interest...

Is this a tricky way of getting rough points costs, or do you consider your anti-tank options in terms of how many meltabombs they're worth?

 

I'm going to pick up the codex (or maybe read the store copy) for Imperial Knights tomorrow and just take a look. I really like the model, and that might be the deciding factor :D

[Jolemai]

It's the former. It's against B&C rules to post individual point costs as it causes GW IP infringements, so the common way of saying how much something costs is by using a standard unit that never changes - hence a Crusader is X melta bombs (It's rare, but I've also seen larger point costs done in Land Raiders).

[Lucumon]

It's against B&C rules to post individual point costs as it causes GW IP infringements

It's like a tax inversion: You get to skirt the spirit of the law through abuse of the letter.

_{Because nothing says integrity violation like bending the rules to do something you aren't supposed to}

[CaptainHelion]

Meltabombs are a standard, but people will use whatever is relevant. Like, I often refer to things in terms of assault squads, as they were a staple in my old lists.

[shaun03]

Have you look at the lancer?

 

There 40k legal rule are free on forge world plus the other knight types. So you can look the at rules and see if there one better suited.

 

But the lancer speed will match any BA army, it's meel weapons will take care of any armor problem. But it lacks Air defenses.

[Paikis]

Option number 3 is 2 or 3 Stormravens.

 

Does anyone have any experience with running stormravens as gunships and NOT as transports? I'd probably run them with MM/TLAC and the bolter sponsons and just fly around shooting things with AV.

[Lucumon]

I do... I've about 10 games with Angel's Fury.

 

I drop off the tactical marines as quick as possible on objectives but have them flying around dakkaing stuff up.  In general the firepower is impressive... but not enough.

 

I am starting to toy with Stormtalons now in either the Tyrannic War Veteran or Storm Wing formations.  Two of them have the same point cost as a Stormraven with Hurricane Bolters but can put out more higher strength firepower... the only drawback being lower armor.

[shaun03]

If you are looking for gunship look to fireraptor, the kit is based of strom raven, so in friendly games the other guy should like proxy it unless he being dick about it. Try it for few games it's solid unit and dish out the pain.

 

Storm talons are extremely effective units, why we can use them is one biggest issue with BA dex.

 

Ravens as gunships do work well, however they really shine when use in pairs. The load out depends on local gaming area but safe bet is AC and MM. That's solid for all comers.

 

What makes the 3 raven formation so deadly is most list aren't built to have 3 flyers arrive at the same time. And raven is most heavily armed and armored flyer in 40k. With all that fire power turning up its really hard to counter, unless it's tau inceptor list. Than just start packing up the cause it's going to be short match.

 

I don't use the bolter option I points are better off some place else. When they start shooting they got missles, AC and MM. So adding the bolters takes away from firing one of those 3. Even if you raven survives the whole game you are hard press to empty all the missle slots. Bolters look cool, but I never saw the need for them. But that's just opinion on them others might say there worth it, so when in doubt try them for your self and see what you like.