FAQing Honoured Knights, Terminators, and Stern

[L30n1d4s]

I love the new GK Codex.

 

Nuanced, high ceiling, powerful, generally fluffy in its rules and layout... for a guy who's first 40K army was Daemonhunters back in 4th edition, I am really excited about the new book!

 

Nothing is perfect, of course, and despite how much I really like this codex, there are a few areas that I wish were better, namely:

 

1 - Non-character Honoured Knights (i.e. Paladins, Purifiers, Venerable Dreads) which can't access Brotherhood bonuses

 

2 - Terminators, and their poor durability per cost ratio compared to Strikes

 

3 - Brother-Captain Stern, who just doesnt get enough to justify taking over other HQs

 

 

My solutions would be pretty simple:

 

1 - Non-character Honoured Knights get an innate reroll to hit of 1s "built-in" to their rules --> makes up for not getting any Brotherhood bonuses and let's them operate independently of the rest of the army, as the Elites they are supposed to be.

 

2 - Units in Terminator Armor reduce the cost of the "True-Silver Armour" Strat by 1 CP, making them a bit more competitive compared to PAGK options.

 

3 - Stern gets to use the "Psychic Locus" Strat for 1 less CP than normal (i.e. only 1 CP per usage), giving incentive to take him over other Brother-Captains.

 

 

That's it. I know there are other things people wish for, but those three changes would really take a great Codex and make it amazing, IMHO.

[Schurge]

Those all sound reasonable to me.

[redmapa]

Those are all great ideas and valid questions to put forth to the GW faq email, rerolling 1s with Paladins might be a bit much BUT they do need to be worth their points and bring something Terminators dont, maybe Dominus Powers or the ability to choose their brotherhood power or something because otherwise the Honored Knights keyword does nothing but gimp these units. 

[angrom]

Paladins needs to be bodyguards

[War of the Eagle]

Paladins need built in Trans human or a 4+ invul

[Holier Than Thou]

Paladins needs to be bodyguards

Agreed. I’d also allow them to benefit from Brotherhood Keyword but maybe stipulate it MUST be your Warlord’s Brotherhood.

[Gnomeo]

Honestly I am fine with them not having th e brotherhood key word as from a lore point of view it makes sense. Though I do agree they need something to show how tough they are. Look at the lore on what a grey knight has to go through to become a paladin. It's nuts!

[RedemptionNL]

I don't see changes like this coming in a FAQ - they rarely change rules on a datasheet. So the best we can hope for is changes in an upcoming campaign book. But besides being a long way off, those also aren't likely to have new datasheets unless the unit also gets (a) new model(s).

 

Besides that, any point changes in the next Chapter Approved might change things. I can see Terminators getting a few points cheaper (and maybe even Strikes getting more expensive) to make Terminators compare better to Strikes.

 

Also keep in mind that Draigo's re-roll 1's to hit aura works fine on Honoured Knight units, and so does his full re-rolls on one unit.

[Gnomeo]

If terminators went down to 38/39 then that would be interesting

[Oiad]

As others have pointed out above, a points change is far more likely to happen than new rules. Both GKTs and Paladins could do with around a -5pt drop. Meanwhile PA units are also probably under-costed and could rise by about 2pts. By lessening the disparity between the two, it would address the issues many players have with them as competitive choices.

 

To put realistic likelihoods aside and delve into answer your points directly:

1. Interesting. My initial thought was to give Paladins and Purifiers their own Brotherhood ruleset, which for 1CP takes away 'Honoured Knights' and makes them Obsec.
2. Good idea. As a recent match of Icosiel's pointed out, it seems some of our stratagems are just straight-up overpriced/underpowered compared to equivalents from other codices. A points reworking to specific Stratagems seems a plausible option.
3. Stern has a good Warlord trait and that extra attack is nice. Ideally, GW just need to rethink his abilities in future updates. Zone of Banishment could easily be reworked so that rather than being daemon specific his player gets to choose whether he can Smite a single unit at full distance or all enemy units within 6". They also need to rework Strands of Fate, though I'm unsure how to do that. It hasn't really changed since Stern's introduction in 3E.

[Corvus Fortis]

All these guys need is a point drop. I like idea of reduced strat cost, but honored knights don't need new rules - they are unique enough on their own. I also don't think that PA units need point hike - don't forget about external balance too. We are not going to wreck Drukhari or AdMech.

[Oiad]

It's about finding that sweep spot in cost between the two troop choices, to make them equally enticing. Would just a few points off GKTs do it? Hmmm... As for Honoured Knights, L30n1d4s' point of contention isn't whether they're 'unique enough' but their loss of access to buffs from other units. We're just spinning ideas to make up for that lack of synergy.

Edited August 26, 2021 by Oiad

[Corvus Fortis]

Paladins already rival Rapier Terminators in their close combat output and are more flexible in sactic choice. Their banner provides them an additional attack on top of that. Cost efficiency is the only problem with them.

 

Purifyers get better version of smite at short ranges and are more durable thanks to stratagem. I don't get why they see so few love. 

 

So there's no point in giving them more buffs on top what they have. 

[corwindal5]

I wouldn't be suprised if strikes, purifiers, and interceptors all increase by 1 pt accross the board and maybe terminators and paladins all come down by 2 pts each.  Paladins might only come down by 1 pt.  

 

We will see in a few months I guess.